The lyrics of pop music are usually fluff – but sometimes they
are quite instructive.
Selena Gomez’s latest “hit” is called “Same Old Love” where she
sings on and on about how she “is so sick of that same old love.” Which should lead one to ask – what kind of “love”
is she sick of? What kind of “love” is
she talking about?
“The kind that tears me up” she sings. “The kind that breaks your heart.” Ohhhhhhhh, you’re talking about the “love”
Disney panders. The
stare-into-each-others-eyes-time-melts-away kind of “love.” The chemicals rushing through the bloodstream
“love.” The high-like-a-drug “love.”
Pop music and Hollywood have been selling this kind of feel-good
love as the “true” thing for decades, and according to Selena, it has finally
caught up with us. Because there is a
huge deception in this “love” they are talking/singing about. This “love” they boast of and teach everyone
to search for – above all else – at the expense of anything that comes in its
way – is not actually for anyone but you.
Just you. You and only you, all
by yourself, all alone.
Think about it. They
are not talking about what you do for someone else. They are talking about the way you feel inside when you are with
someone. They are talking about how
someone makes you feel. If they make you feel good, then you are “full
of love” for them. But the moment they
stop taking you to that “high”, the moment the feelings you are feeling inside are
not as strong as they were before – do you still love them? How do you get those feelings back?
In an amazing twist that has sent us all on a search for
certain feelings inside ourselves, we have abandoned real love that looks out at the other person. We are stuck looking in. Trying to know others by feeling them inside
us. Because we think this is love. But it is lust. Desire.
Not love. In fact, love is
entirely different.
God showed His love to us this way: He sent His only Son
into our sin and death, that believing He did it for us, we might not perish.
(John 3:16) It didn’t feel good. Jesus was not happy on the cross. He gave up every good thing He had – for you.
That is love.
Unconditional, acting, committed love.
Not inside someone. But out in
plain sight – for all to see – lifted up that He might draw all people to
Himself. Not for Himself – but always
and only for you.
This is the kind of love that really tears me up. This is the kind that breaks my heart of
stone. That our sinless God became our
sin. That He was crowned with our
curse. That He died our death – in order
to save us forever. That is love. And there is no way one could ever be sick of
it.
So if you are out there “looking for love,” don’t
listen to the preaching of Disney and use your feelings. Christ has shown you true love. It acts.
Find someone whose eyes are looking at the exact same point on the
horizon of life as you are – find someone who believes in your Savior God – and
who wants to act, as you do, in His service all your days here and for all
eternity. I promise – all the chemicals
and feelings – they will sort themselves out on their own.
