Now that we found love...

Heavy D's (and The Boyz') hit song "Now That We Found Love" is a guilty pleasure of mine, along with a host of other cheesy rap songs from the late 80's and early 90's. I have a strange affinity for music that most people would rather forget about or will admit they like, just not enough to spend 99 cents to download it on iTunes.

At any rate, I don't have that kind of restraint in my make up.

So, while rocking out to the profound lyrics :P and hard hitting, dance-y beats of Mr. D (and The Boyz), I realized... he's onto something.

Now that we've found love, what are we gonna do with it?

We live in a world of Hollywood-endings and internet "soul mate" seeking . Blech! What a joke. Love is not a feeling. It's not magic. It doesn't sweep us off our feet and it certainly doesn't "have us at hello".

Emotion is a part of it for sure. And maybe there does exist that tingly feeling in our bellies when we see that special someone. Perhaps we could even feel light headed at the thought of being cared for by one who we care about. But this is not the whole of it.

Love is work. It's a choice. It's a "statement of will" (Thanks C.S.). And as Heavy D (and The Boyz) points out, when you find it, you gotta do something with it. Love is a verb. There is action involved. And it means doing something about it even when you find loving someone to be extremely difficult!

Indeed, when you find yourself very much wanting the best for your significant other, you've got a decision to make. Do I love her? Can I go on loving her? How important is her well being to me? Do I care enough for her to compromise my own fantasies and desires?

Our culture would like us to think our lives are not perfect until we find that special someone. What a lie. In fact, when we do find that someone, we realize how imperfect we are. And to the Christian, it is willfully choosing to work through that imperfection that brings us to the perfection of eternal life.

So what are you gonna do with love?

I'm not sure Heavy (and the Boyz... of course) can be considered a modern day CS Lewis, but on some level he knew there was another step to take after he "found love". I wonder which direction he went in.