Young, Dumb, and Stupid in Love

As we get get older, it’s pretty easy to poke fun at how stupid “kids” can be when they’re in love. But truth be told, most of us have been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt (and we’re still trying to hide the photos to conceal the evidence). Maturity (a better way of saying “getting older”) has a way of leveling things out and bringing a certain amount of stability. In some ways that’s a good thing…but in many other ways, it’s a loss. I still love my wife as much as the day we got married, and in many ways I love her more. But 18+years of marriage can take the “edge” off. We’re comfortable with each other. We care deeply for each other. We know each other really well. But I sometimes miss that electricity of when just a touch would give you a charge. Do you remember that? Do you remember what it was like to be young, dumb, and stupid in love? While life in general may be much better now, do you ever wish you could recapture some of that excitement?

That’s a great picture of what happens to most of us in our spiritual walk. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, it’s fresh, it’s new, and the possibilities are real and vibrant. But time goes by…the edge wears off…the excitement dies…and the next thing you know you’re just trudging through life doing your Christian thing when you can, but mostly wondering what happened. The something more you once knew was yours for the taking is now a distant memory. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

If we are going to find the something more that God has for us, it will require engaging our God-given passions and desire. It is what motivates us to keep going when there is more month than paycheck, when the pipes freeze, the kids are sick, the car breaks down (again), and it seems that not even God cares.

What we felt when we were young and in love is the same thing we felt when Jesus swept into our lives, and it is PASSION. Passion can be defined as an inner force, enthusiasm for something or someone. It moves us…motivates us..stirs us…drives us… and propels us to our potential and our destiny.

The question becomes what is God asking us to pursue with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? What gets you up early? What keeps you up late at night?

Some of you may have come to the place where the honest answer is, NOTHING! If so, then you need to take the advice we shared in the first Sunday of 2008….ask God to give you something like that. Ask him to stir your heart again for something. Ask him for something big…so big that you have to B-ring I-n G-od, because it’s too big for you.

Whatever you can identify as the answer to that question is a great place to start in regard to finding your something more. Because, ultimately, it will flow from a deep walk with God through Jesus Christ. You may have to ask God to “awaken the echoes..to stir the pot in your life”. But it’s worth it, because anything else is just existing. Let’s not try to justify it or rationalize it by saying we’ve matured, or we’re past that point, or it’s too late, or any other excuse we tend to lean on.

If you’re having trouble identifying something, then start to clear out the clutter. Get rid of competing agendas…those time-killers that we assign a great deal of importance too but that if we were to stop doing, it wouldn’t really matter. Let’s get rid of those things. Let’s get rid of standing on past accomplishments…it doesn’t count for anything today. If we want 2008 to be the year of our lives, we must ask God to help us be young, dumb and stupid in love again. To feel the fire of possibilities, the fire of what-ifs…the excitement of something we anticipate. We’ve all felt it before, and we can feel it again. And it will help lead us to what God has for us.