What Song Shaped Your Soul?

There are so many songs about love. Recently, someone suggested I listen to “Love Is a Decision” by Harlan Hayes. The opening line caught my attention:

“Love is not always about butterflies.”

The song goes on to say that love is choosing the name of the person you love every single day. That simple thought made me stop and ask myself a question:

What is love?

Is it merely a feeling? Or is it a decision?

It took me years to understand the words of 1 John 4:7, “Love is from God.”

Growing up, I was taught that God is holy. And God is holy. But I rarely heard anyone say, “God is love.” The pieces of my faith never quite seemed to fit together. I associated love with romance, not with God.

Yes, I know. I was a minister. I studied theology. I knew about our relationships with God, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. Yet somehow I never connected all of those relationships with the simple truth that God is love.

Then one day, while meditating on Galatians 5:22, another piece of the puzzle fell into place.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

There was that word again.

Love.

If God is love, and the fruit of God’s Spirit begins with love, then love is the very life of God within us.

I thought back to Genesis, where God breathed into a lifeless body, and humanity became a living soul. It dawned on me that God’s breath carried His own life—His love, His joy, His peace, His kindness, His gentleness, His goodness, His faithfulness, and His self-control.

Then Harlan Hayes’ song added one more missing piece.

Love is a decision.

I can choose whether I will welcome the gifts of God’s Spirit or reject them. Every day I decide whether I will love or hate… forgive or resent… build bridges or walls.

Love is not something that merely happens to us.

Love is something we choose.

Once that light bulb came on, another favorite song came to mind—“Love Can Build a Bridge” by The Judds.

It can.

When I choose to let God’s love flow through me, it builds a bridge between your heart and mine.

And when those bridges are built, I find myself singing another favorite:

“You Raise Me Up.”

Perhaps that is why music speaks so deeply to us. A song has a way of expressing truths our hearts already know but our minds have not yet discovered.

Music truly is the language of the soul.