Someone wiser than myself once told me, "Every sin is a shortcut around the intended path." or something to that effect.
Perhaps I am alone but, I have seen the mistakes men make when they feel alone. I have made my own mistakes in pursuit never being alone again.
But I would rather be alone and have my relationship with God uncompromised, than to live as if I didn't know the cost.
There is a love vacuum that we live in. A need to express, share, and experience love, flows through our soul. But Love cannot be bought, it cannot be short circuited, it cannot be dispensed at our leisure and it cannot be replaced.
Lust is not love, but many hope to find love at the end of a road that begins with lust.
Money is not love, but many hope to find security in money and hope to find love as a product of wealth.
Love must simply be a gift, without expectation, without a cause, without an aim and without a price.
Even under the best circumstances, connections are made that are designed to be severed. Its a funny thing, how the heart works. We were meant to bond with each other, to feel connected, to be close but, it was not meant to be synthetic or have an expiration. Our mind can try to rationalize it, but our being has no such mechanism.
Because we can for a moment have this. It can feel real, and be satisfying. But it is terminally flawed. It leads to an unhealthy state. Almost like a drug. If something can make you feel good, and the only it requires of you is money and time, it seems alright but, it doesn't last. You have to come back to feel that way again. It requires no courage. And once you've experienced the closeness to someone, it cannot be unlearned. A person may spend the rest of their lives chasing a dragon that simply cannot be caught, because once upon a time they felt something that cannot be replicated.
Once this becomes an avenue to emotional affection, platonic or otherwise, its going to create a dependency. This dependency will make a legitimate relationship seem like too much work, and too risky and too unreliable.
The bible says, "Above all else, Guard your heart, for it determines the course of your life." Pro 4:23
The real truth is that Love is made of Courage. What is easy is not valuable and what is valuable is not easy. This is why we do not settle or pursue the consolation prize of relationship. This is why love inspires us to be better than we were the day before. Love is perfect, a standard that we cannot be but, we can know it.
Love does not seek for itself, it does not covet or want, it does not cause strife, it simply is a gift. The greatest gift that we have is our ability to love one another completely, as Christ did. And the greatest blessing that we can experience is to be loved as Christ has always.
Yet we are frail, vulnerable, mortal creatures. Yet this is not counted as loss for we have a promise that endures, this enables us to love fearlessly. Even if it is only until death do us part, we have the opportunity to show the world what a courageous love centered relationship is capable of being. Our eternal promise through Christ Jesus is the Kingdom, yet even now its light shines in our love for one another.