Mistaken for what it is not 

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Love Took a Chance

By Allison C

Jenny knew she was in love from the minute she met Mike. She fell all the way for him, and was so sure that he truly loved her! But when he tried to pressure her into doing something she wasn’t comfortable with, saying, “C’mon! It’ll be fun! Don’t be a baby!” she began to realize he wasn’t who she thought he was. When she refused he forced her, broke up with her, and then left her to tend to her own wounded heart. And it’s sad! So many people now-a-days have made the same mistake Jenny did. Society today thinks love and lust are the same thing, when really, they couldn’t be more opposite. So they get into a relationship built upon a shaky foundation, dedicate their whole hearts to each other, and then are mortally wounded when the castle falls because they didn’t realize it’s not built on the strong foundation of true love. It’s a terrible mistake that leads to many painful, broken hearts. In reality, all that pain is because of one tiny mistake: we mistake lust for love. 

In today’s day and age, influenced by the society we now live in, we have a wrong concept of love. Love is not what a lot of people think it is. Love is not sex. Do you ever wonder why relationships only usually last, at most, for a year or two? It’s because the ‘undying love’  each partner had for the other did exactly what it wasn’t supposed to do: die. It may feel like love on the heat of the moment, and sadly, it is mistaken for ‘love’ so many times! But it couldn’t be farther from what love truly is. How then, can we know what the word ‘love’ really means? Society obviously doesn’t have the answer. We throw the word around so much to, like, “I love the smell of roses” or “Don’t you just love the new movie that came out?”. I guess we don’t take it very seriously, do we?

For one thing, love is stronger than lust, by far. Love is the feeling you have for someone, even if they don’t gratify you or give you what you want. Love is not about you, but about the other person. It’s loving and being there for them when they need you most. Love stays when lust goes. Love takes a chance. Love means that you still care for a person, even if they can’t do things for you. Love means you would do anything for that person— cross the Grand Canyon, climb Mt. Everest… anything! — because you love them! I once read about a man in China who carved 6,000 steps in the mountainside where they lived, so his wife could get down without slipping. His labor of love took him 50 years to complete. Then, there was the man that spent 2-3 years out on the street, a sign hung over his neck, trying to find a kidney for his wife who needed a transplant. What propelled them to do that? Love.

Lust isn’t a word we hear or use much in our modern world, really. Our culture today has disguised ‘lust’ under the title of ‘love’. A guy may say he ‘loves’ a girl, and then try forcing her, or peer pressuring her, into doing something that she may not want to do; all to fulfill his own passions and desires. Is that love? I wouldn’t think so, would you? He couldn’t care less about what she thinks, could he? All he wants is what she can give him, how she can gratify him, and wouldn’t even start to think about doing something for for her. Lust is going after a person because of how they can benefit you; never caring about what they think, how they feel, and what they want. Lust only likes the other person for what they have that it can benefit from, or indulge in, whether it be money, or beauty, or whatever. Sadly, most people today don’t recognize lust for what it is, mislabeling it ‘love’, and calling it “okay” and “good”. It’s not “okay”, and it certainly isn’t “good”! Lust would never take a chance for you.

Most people don’t realize that love and lust are two completely different things. But they are! They are so different from each other! Love is long-lasting, while lust only sticks around until the feeling wears away, and then goes to find someone else who can satisfy it. Love never, ever takes advantage of you; lust uses you to get what it wants. Love cares about you as a person, when you are sick or hurting; lust only cares about your looks, your body, your money, or whatever it is you have that it wants. Lust deserts you when you need it most, because they can’t be bothered to help you when you can’t give it what it wants. But love? Love is there when you need it most, to comfort you, hold you, to lift you up onto your feet again, and then to cheer you on as you try to walk forward. It’s gentle, kind, and caring. Love still cares and loves you, even if you throw it away and hurt it. So un-alike! Yet, even though they are so vastly different, love and lust are very similar. Ironic, isn’t it? But, yes, they are both strong feelings that drive you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. Love to benefit and bless you, lust to gain for itself. They both don’t give up easily, and they both want something from you. Lust just wants what you can do for it; love, wants one thing, and one thing only— for you to be happy. Lust is selfish. Love is unselfish. Love takes a chance.

Lust, no matter how many times people say it is, is not love. We have a wrong concept of love, and mix it together with lust until the two are unseparated, almost indistinguishable. But love, true love, is not lust. Lust is found in the proud things of earth. It’s found in the innermost thoughts of people you thought were upright and pure. It is found in the most unlikely places. And yes, lust can sneak up on you without you realizing it. But! Love is so different! True love is found in an old stable, filled with animals, lying in a feeding trough. It is found in a desert, tormented by hunger, thirst, and temptation. It is found in the pitying touch of a healer to a sick mortal. It is found in the forgiveness of a King. It is found in a garden, sweating blood, and crying out because of the weight of sin laid upon it. The agony of such, no man has ever gone through. Yes, true love is found on an ancient hill with a cross. It is found in a dark, empty cave, with vacant grave clothes folded neatly in the corner. It is found in a promise that vows, “I will come back for you!”  Mirrored in the image of Calvary and the life of Christ, love shines forth in all it’s glory and it’s tender beauty. Sometimes, words can’t express what actions show. Love has to take a chance. The blood-stained wood, the harsh crown of thorns drawing blood from the noble brow, the nails driven into tender flesh, the sign above a bowed head declaring this innocent criminal to be “KING OF THE JEWS”, the earth shaking cry of “It is finished!” tells more than mere words every could. It spells out one small, four-letter word message: Love. And when Jesus draws two people together, it’s not only their mutual love for each other, but also a mutual love for Him that bonds them. When Christ is the center, the relationship spells out ‘Love’. Why? Because he is Love. And Love took a Chance.