What does it look like?

Recently, a group of my friends were sitting around talking about goals for the coming semester, and it came to me to discuss what my plans were. I've always been goal oriented, but for some reason, I was a little unsure of how to answer this question. 

Goals for the semester? What does that even mean? 

I said I want to continue to fall in love with God. Seems like an obvious answer from a seminarian aspiring to be in ministry, but that really is my goal for this semester. It's my goal for this year. It's my goal for next year. It's my goal for my entire life. 

I'm a relatively young person, and I cannot claim that I know everything. Actually, the older I get, the more I realize how little I know. But one thing that is for certain, I really love God. 

I've been blessed with the opportunity to grow up in the church, to see the good and bad of it, and I've always felt like I've loved God. However, the older I get, the more I come to know that I must make the decision to love God. It might be total depravity or simple entropy, but I easily forget how to love God. I have really good intentions. I say that I follow Him. I try to follow Him. But then I say something that I know is not indicative of my relationship with God. Or think something that I know is unholy. 

It's really easy to think that my relationship with God is okay. You know those friends that remain your friend even after years of non-contact? I don't think God is like that...I think that God is completely, wholeheartedly looking for us. Trying to reach us. Trying to connect with us. Trying to remind us of His great love. 

I think we have to make a decision to love God daily. One verse that I wrote on my bathroom mirror in college was Joshua 24:15 about how we must choose to follow God, and it's something that I must go back to constantly. I think there's a reason that these verses are popular. It's like a song on the radio. The first couple times you hear it, it's great. Then after awhile, it becomes monotonous and repetitive. I don't ever want God's love for me to become monotonous and repetitive. I don't want to forget that God is trying to reach me. So I decide daily to follow God. I decide daily to love God. 

The thing that I must refine is what does my love for God look like? Devotions? Prayer? Celibacy? Fasting? Random acts of kindness? Touching the hearts of the disenchanted? Preaching? Teaching? Worshipping?

I think love looks like love; my love for God looks like His love for me. I love because He first loved me.