Image from Pixabay

The desire for romance is an integral part of human nature. The romantic impulse is a huge part of our lives—consider how it is used to sell practically everything. We long for someone to come along, reach inside of us, and quench some inner desire and show us that we are loved and appreciated. We want someone to be there for us who will be completely committed to us and will always meet our needs. But anyone we meet will just be human. At the deepest level, everyone wants a sense of acceptance, belonging, and security that can only be met by God, our Creator. The temptation is to believe that someone else can do for us what only God can. People want to be loved and accepted, but they make a mistake when relationships, sex, and marriage are used as proxies for the love that only God can provide them. 

Nevertheless, if the romantic impulse in us remains unsatisfied, it may gnaw away at us. By nature, we tend to focus on what we want but do not have, and this is especially true of romance. Romance is, by its nature, preoccupied with the here and now and tends to focus our attention on the temporal rather than what is eternal. Thus, we can easily find ourselves “chasing after love,” as if it were something that could be caught. 

True love between people, on the other hand, comes after much time. It grows, and love is ideally the soil in which romance lives. Love doesn’t just happen after one conversation, experience, date, or even after a marriage ceremony. Ironically, a preoccupation with romantic and sexual interests inhibits interpersonal growth and communication—prerequisites for a successful long-term relationship.