Is it love, or lust
Recently, my wife and I went on an awesome trip to Cuba. There were many mishaps. First, our smaller suitcase was taken by mistake by someone else at the airport. When we got to our resort, we then had to trace back to another resort, contact Sunwing (thankfully the other individual wrote his name and address on his luggage) and tracked him down. After about 1hr of stressful detective work and $40 pesos (about $50 Canadian) we got our luggage back. And the list of mishaps, I can count 4 that I could have easily done without. 2 of which cost nearly $150 by the time it was said and done. Some of the exciting things we did, was do the Catamaran excursion. Essentially, out on a huge sailboat, accommodating about 80 people, which then resulted in snorkelling and hanging out with a dolphin.
It was this trip that prompted this post. While out, the music was playing loudly and most people, I suspect, were enjoying it. I could see the faces of a select few that weren’t crazy about the music choice. Myself, I try to remain neutral, however there is one song that completely killed my buzz. The song is called “Everybody F***” by Pitbull and Akon. I had to do a bit of digging into this one (funny how some things don’t leave your memory) and I found it on you tube when I got back home. While I wasn’t shocked at the lyrics and video, I am disappointed at how much this world confuses lust with love. If you look at Hollywood and movies, you only love a woman when you stare at her. She’s not worth being loved if she’s overweight according to today’s magazines.
If you love your woman, you should shower her with jewellery and items. Henry Morgentaler (a local abortion supporter here in the region) claimed he was trying to earn women’s love. He was married 3 times, and had as many as 90 affairs (I find that number high, however, some reports claim it). The famed actor Mickey Rooney (great actor, not so much husband) was married 8 times. At what point did he really love his wife/wives? Elizabeth Taylor was married 8 times. And these are the ones we see as role models for love? Seriously? As soon as your spouse either disagrees with you, doesn’t buy you what you want, or is not as visually appealing as was before, time for a divorce? Is this really sacrificial love? Or is it more the selfish type of love described as “He/she completes me”.
Back to the Pitbull song. He claims in the song that we have to let our bodies do what they will, everyone “loves”. No contracts, no commitments, possibly no names. The irony is, all the women in his video are very visually attractive with the “perfect” body according to North America’s standards. I wonder if he would sing the same song to his wife (if he was married long enough) that was laying in bed, sick with a paralyzing disease that completely prohibits her from leaving the bed. Would he sing about serving her? Feeding, changing, supporting, whispering his love in her ear, trying to make her comfortable? No, I seriously see that this character and his followers are indeed only in it for sex.
This world has completely confused what it is to love and lust .
Lust is fulfilling your own desires for your own personal gain. It’s completely ignoring the other person’s values, morals and dignity. If it’s for objects such as cars, money…it’s idolatry. Love, on the other hand, is giving the other person as much value as possible, respects their morals and dignifies them. Another example of love is what God displayed for us on the cross with his Son. When he sent his son on the cross, he gave EVERYTHING he had, to take the punishment we so rightly deserved for lusting after everything that is ungodly. I pray with this post, you can look at your own heart and see what drives you. Is it men/women, money, sports, cars, work…if it’s not God, it’s idolatry. I pray you will see Christ on the cross and repent of your sins and offences against God and believe in his son.