What does it mean to "give in" to love? If God's love is like the ocean (and if you've read much of my blog, you know I learn a lot about God's love from the ocean), it means sitting on the shore and marveling that no matter how long you sit there, or how many days/weeks/months/years in a row you observe the ocean, the waves just keep coming and coming. There is nothing you can do to make them come, and nothing you can do to make them stop. The tides rise and fall, the waves may be rougher or gentler, but the motion does not end.
We who love imperfectly can have a hard time trusting this kind of relentless love. It's not just that God's love is infinite, that it is always "out there" beckoning us. It is not just that it is unconditional, flowing at us no matter what we do. It is that it seeking us, coming at us, endlessly, whether we are paying attention or not, working to erode the hard places in our hearts so that it might soak in and transform us.
Wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave, until we are so lost in the rhythm that we breathe along with it. And when we reach that point, we have given in to love.
Don't get me wrong - I am not breathing in time with the ocean, or God's love, 100% of the time. But it's not God that is to blame for that. It's me, too easily distracted. One thing the pandemic has taught me is the value of letting other things wait, so that I might breathe long enough to give in. I'm so grateful to live by the ocean, a constant physical reminder. I hope you have somewhere, someone, something in your life that reminds you of God's relentless love, and the sheer joy of giving in to it.
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