There are two kinds of love I’ve experienced, and they feel completely different.
Natural Love
When I’m feeling natural love, it’s a kind of recognition and resonance.
It’s the namaste.
It’s this feeling where the potential for love and growth in me is in full resonance with that same potential in everything and everyone else.
It’s a beautiful feeling of unity. A feel-good feeling of readiness.
I’m able to cultivate this love and grow it within myself. And I do.
Natural love feels earned somehow. Like I’ve done the work to arrive at this peaceful place. It’s warm and comfortable and sustainable. I can return to it through practices I’ve learned over time.
Divine Love Is Different
Divine love is something altogether different.
It’s a welling up so powerful it brings me to tears.
It’s as though some light so bright or some love so strong is filling me. And in doing so, I’m immediately aware of all the parts of me which are not love.
And in that knowing I’m deeply humbled and in awe.
This love doesn’t come from me. It comes through me. There’s no technique that produces it. It arrives when it chooses to arrive, though I’ve noticed patterns in what invites it.
The Devotion That Follows
In that place of deep emotion sweeping through each of my mental and bodily systems, I feel a kind of devotion.
I want to serve this love and honor it as best I can.
I’m all too aware of my shortcomings and yet keenly aware that this love is offered fully, anyway, with no strings attached.
It feels as though someone is giving me a gift which I’m not worthy of receiving. And yet it’s given freely.
The contrast between what I am and what this love is creates something unexpected. Not shame, but motivation. Not guilt, but longing to become more aligned with what I’ve been shown.
How Divine Love Comes
It’s the most humbling experience I’ve ever had. And in it, new possibilities open to me. It’s gifted to me more and more often, as I long for it.
It’s a longing for a personal relationship with a God who is not me, but who created me.
An experiment anyone can run simply by asking to be shown God’s true love with strong enough desire and passion.
It’s born out of seeking truth, even if the truth means I’ve been wrong about everything in my life.
For in my realization that I know nothing, everything becomes available to me.
Why It Must Be Longed For
This second love, divine love, comes with an intensity that must be longed for.
Because the sense I get is that someone not ready to receive it would crumble under the light of its truthful benevolence.
You’re ready when the desire to receive this love wells up powerfully within you. When it commands your attention with powerful curiosity.
It doesn’t ask to be worshipped, only acknowledged.
It’s truly awe-inspiring.
Both loves are real. Both matter. Natural love sustains me day to day. Divine love transforms me at the root. I need both, and I’m grateful for the moments when either one shows up.
This is the lens the Bible is meant to be read through.
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