The Jesus Boyfriend

"You are everything that I live for
Everything that I can't believe is happening
You're standing right in front of me
With arms wide open all I know is
Every day is filled with hope
'Cause You are everything that I breathe for
And I can't help but breathe You in, and breathe again
Feeling all this life within
Every single beat of my heart."
- You are Everything (Matthew West)

Sounds like a love song :)

There are a lot of songs that I listen to that sound like love songs, but are actually about God. I tend to get a lot of "Is this about Jesus or your boyfriend?" questions from brothers who hear the songs when they are with me. A lot of people are bringing up the strangeness of this "Jesus is my boyfriend" kind of attitude. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and as I listened and sang along with this Matthew West song yesterday, I think it clicked.

Turn on the radio, and you'll hear someone asking "How can I live or breathe without you?" or declaring "I need you" and similar things. Watch a romance movie and you see couples declaring that they found that one person who makes everything make sense. Without this person nothing would matter -life wouldn't be worth living. It seems that romantic love has become the end all be all. Couples look for someone to complete them, to give them a hope, a purpose, a reason. Everyone is trying to find someone to be their everything.

People are not perfect. When we put that sort of expectation on someone else, we are bound to get disappointed. That's too much pressure to put on a person - and none of us were created to fulfill that role. And yet, too many people try to force others into it.

That's the problem. It's not that songs about God sound like romantic love songs. It's that romantic love songs sound like songs about God. It's not that we are trying to make Jesus our boyfriend. It's that we are trying to make our boyfriends (girlfriends, wives, husbands,etc) our Jesus.

So, yes, I do and will continue to say that I'm in love with my God. Why? Because people's understanding of what being in love with someone is - is how I am about my God. He's the One I can't breathe without. He's the One I need. He's the one who completes me, who gives me a hope, a purpose, a reason. Without Him, life wouldn't be worth living. He's my everything.