Woke up this morning with a song in my heart. It’s an old gospel hymn I grew up on… “Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else would help love lifted me.” And as I was meditating on that, this song came to mind…”Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces, searchin’ their eyes lookin’ for traces of what I’ve been dreaming of.”

At first, these two songs seem like they’re pulling in different directions. But the longer I sat with them, the more they felt like they belonged together, almost stacked on top of each other. One’s the wandering—lost, trying to fill something inside you. The other is the moment you realize you’ve finally landed somewhere safe. I know I’ve vascillated between both in my own life.

The line about “looking for love in all the wrong places”—really hits hard, not just because it’s catchy, but because it’s fact. We’re wired to search, to want something bigger. We chase approval, relationships, achievements—all those things we think might fix the emptiness. They don’t, though. Not at the deepest level. They just aren’t cut out for it. What we’re really after is to be known and loved for real, by the One who made us.

So we keep looking. We hand out little bits of ourselves, hoping this next thing or person will finally make us feel okay. Sometimes, it even works for a minute. But the emptiness always creeps back in, and you see it’s just another dry well—lots of promise, but never what you actually need.

Then without any advanced warning something changes…

“Love lifted me” isn’t just a nice ending. It’s being pulled out of the chaos. God moves first, before we even have words for how lost we are. That’s the point: we only love at all because He loved us first. (1 John 4:19-21) He starts it, not us. His love doesn’t just slap a band-aid on things. It cuts through all the places where we’ve felt small or forgotten. When we give up and nothing else works, God’s love holds. It doesn’t fizzle out. It sticks.

Funny thing is, all those “wrong places” end up mattering too. They’re not wasted years. They help us see the real thing when it finally shows up. So, I guess that’s it: the searching and the finding don’t cancel each other out. They’re part of the same story.

One song is about reaching for God without knowing it. The other is about what happens when He finds you.

If you’re tired of chasing things that never last, maybe today’s the day to turn and look for the love that already knows you. It doesn’t just drop in for a visit. It lifts you up. It restores you. And it never leaves. To God be the glory!

Thank you so much for your support and your continued readership. Have a blessed new week!

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