It’s frustrating when we pray for direction and feel like we do not receive any answer from God. It can feel confusing and lonely when we’re surrounded by pain and unexpected changes in life that make us wonder what to do next.
For a while now I have been struggling with those feelings. For most of my life, I had a set of dreams and the steps to reach them were fairly clear. I at least felt like I knew what my next move should be. But now I’m at a point in my life where I don’t know what to do next and when I come up with my own ideas they all seem to feel empty.
Recently I was reading the New Testament and a passage from Romans struck my heart and ended up providing an answer to many questions in my heart.
“8 Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments ‘You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,’ and whatever commandments there may be, are summed up in the saying ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 10 Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. 11 And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to be awake from sleep, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, 13 let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”
Romans 13:8-14
In the version I was reading from (the New Living Translation), verse 11 was written as, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out.” This verse struck me in particular and the note I made in my Bible was “There is no time for anything but love.” The power of this simple truth seemed to wash over me as I took it in. If Bibles can have mic drop verses, this is one of them. There seemed to be nothing else I could think of, no other words that were needed to follow this truth. I realized that part of its power is that it could answer an endless list of questions, and in this way, love is always the answer. When I feel lost and wonder what to do next, it’s love. When I feel hurt and angry by someone’s actions, love is the answer. When I feel regret and want to know how to make it right, love is the answer. I don’t need to worry so much about what my steps look like as long as I’m loving. Careers, hobbies, travel, and big life moments like getting married or buying a house, these can all be wonderful things, but they all wash away in comparison with our command to love. Love is God’s dream for us and there is no time to do anything except love.
Somehow it’s easier to come to this truth after we have failed in love or feel like it’s too late. For example, when a loved one passes away and we think of the arguments we had with them over things that don’t seem to matter at all anymore or how we could have shown more care to them while they were with us. Or when a relationship ends and we think of the ways we didn’t appreciate the person and what they had asked from us now seems so small. It is sad that it is such a part of our humanly nature to take time and people for granted. We live like we will have endless chances. I imagine how much more beautiful life would be if we recognized in the present the urgency to love instead of looking back at the chances that passed. I imagine how much more beautiful my own life would be if I had made the choice to love more often and in moments when it was so needed.
Instead of allowing our regret to weigh us down, or on the opposite end, ignoring the ways we’ve failed to love so we don’t have to feel the pain and regret, we can look to those times to recognize how much our love matters and how urgent it is that we choose to love every day. Our efforts to love reach beyond this earthly life because the ultimate goal is eternal life with God. Our choice to love and the urgency in which we choose it fulfills God’s purpose for our lives.
Let’s start living like there is no time for anything but love.