The Lover of My Soul

Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away....

Can you imagine being so in love with someone that you were willing to leave your entire life behind you to be with them? It's not that hard for a girl's mind to get there when they've found "true love". We watch it happen day after day. One girl will marry a career man and leave her family and friends behind her to follow his work opportunities, while another marries a missionary and packs up lock, stock and barrel to move to the other side of the world, and another marries a military man and lives in the perpetual motion of moving from one base to another and never having a place to call home, but no one is surprised at these sacrifices...it's just what you do when you're in love.


Now try to imagine a boy proposing to you and you saying "only if you'll let me bring my parents and siblings to live with us, let me have two or three sleep-overs with my friends every week, give me my own room that you only come into IF I give you permission, live where I want to live and have the job that pays for the things that I decide we need."

Um. No.

Just no.

Would anyone call that "true love"? I sure wouldn't. Love means sacrifice. Love means giving yourself and your heart to another. Love means abandoning everything that used to matter for the sake of what matters most.

Jesus Christ calls Himself the "Lover of our Souls" and calls us His darling, His beloved, His "fair one." He treats us with tenderness and compassion, and ultimately sacrificed His life that we could live in freedom and security as His bride. He is the ultimate Lover, and He asks that we "come away with Him."

So we have a choice. We can leave our fears and our doubts behind and let Christ have our entire heart and trust Him no matter where He leads us, or we can expect Him to be satisfied to step into our lives and fit inside our dusty, cluttered souls while we keep carrying all of our filth around with us. To be "sanctified" is to be set apart for a purpose. Don't forget that by accepting Christ's love you are entering a covenant for life. Let Christ be your everything, and be set apart for His will. Follow Him to the ends of the earth and let Him give you your "happily ever after".

He is, after all, Truest Love.

-Joanna