Love is a blessing
Love is a vow
Love is the reason we're standing here now
When I turned 17 the Lord was continuing His work of love in my life. I was learning what it meant to love someone; to love everyone. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13) kept running through my mind. I wanted to understand what it meant to love someone so much that you would die for them. It puzzled me, really, because I felt like it would be an easy decision to die for any of the people in my life that I loved (which included quite a large amount of people).
And then I stumbled across this passage from a 21 Pilots song: "I'd die for you
That's easy to say
I'd live for you
And that's hard to do
Who would you live for?
Who would you die for?"
It just clicked with me: that verse was about laying down your life as a living sacrifice. I made a vow to Christ to try and do just that for Him.
The future before us
Tomorrow's untold
But love is the promise that whatever it holds
Yes, I will hold you
I will hold you up
I will hold you
I will hold you up
I was in a friendship that turned into a courtship while I was 17. The Lord used my relationship to teach me even more about love. It was new, and beautiful. The more I got to know my earthly friend the more I understood how sweet it was to know my heavenly Friend.
So give me your bad days
Give me your fear
Bring all your burdens
Just lay them down here
I had my bad days, just like any other human. Life was never promised to be easy. But I now had a Friend and a friend who would listen. One I could pray to, and one who I knew was praying for me.
Cuz' I'm not gonna leave you
When your world becomes war
I'm standing in the trenches because you're worth fighting for
Yes, I will hold you
I will hold you up
I will hold you
I will hold you up
And I will hold you up in victory
Watch your light outshine the stars
And when you're breaking down and weary, just be weary in my arms
Christ taught me to rest in Him. Many days it felt like my world really had turned to war, but as I grew in the Lord I was strengthened. I was held. I knew I could trust Him.
There will be trials
There will be tests
As hard as I'm tryin' for you, I'm human at best
But baby don't worry
If you should start to fall
Just cling to the one love that's bigger than us all
He will hold you
He will hold you up
I know that he will hold you yeah
He will hold you
He will hold you up
I have many fond memories from my 17th year, but the sweetest memories are of the quiet moments when the Lord ministered to my soul. I learned what love is, and that is a lesson worth learning.

Parts Four and Five: This is Love/All I Have is Christ