Know Me, Love Me

To be fully known and fully loved: a beautiful phrase that has recently occupied my interest. As a matter of fact, I stumbled on a beautiful piece that suggested that being fully known and not loved is painful, being fully loved and not fully known is somewhat scary but being fully known and fully loved is definitely ecstatic!

Truth is we all want to be loved, accepted for who and what we are. In as much as wearing a mask is what we occasionally do, the rationale is simply that deep in our heart of hearts, we do not want to live under a fake pretentious garb but want to be seen and read by men, and be accepted at the same time.

One evening, I was being taken home by a group of friends and noticing the silence in the car (except for chit-chats here and there) I suggested that we play some music. It was immediately suggested that I be the DJ, which entailed that I play music from my phone. Nothing scary about that… yet.

We were a group of five Seventh-day Adventist young men and women who were coming from a church outing. We were affiliated to a mission group. As a matter of fact, two of us held significant positions in that mission group whilst the others had their own sphere of influence. Remember, we are SDA!

And so, being nominated as DJ, I quickly put a disclaimer that songs I’m about to play may not prima facie be the ideal SDA music, but “there is depth in the lyrics guys!”

Fast forward, the songs (and not hymns) start playing and we all danced and sang along till I got home. Bliss!

There is something about that moment that made me feel at home, gave me a sense of belonging. There I was, jamming my favorite songs and nobody gave a stern look at me, nor judged my taste. Its like our minds had met and there was no way of undoing that!

So often than not, we try to twist and squeeze ourselves into something we aren’t just to be loved and accepted but I heard somewhere that the best things in life are free; that you do not have to squeeze and stress yourself to be loved, because genuine love, loves inspite of who you are. It sees, it hears, it understands, it embraces and it transforms. Genuine love is love that is all-eyes, all-observing, alert yet doesn’t excuse faults but embraces them so much that they are consumed in love.

For a certain part of my life, I craved the acceptance and went to great lengths to obtain it. It was stressful! When I stopped chasing the wind, I discovered that I became free, happy and content in my own skin. My faults were plainly seen and lost in the genuine love of those who truly cared and instead of striving so hard to be accepted, it came naturally.

There is this beautiful hymn (I’m SDA after all) that concludes “He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.” That is the love that knows, that sees but loves anyhow. That is the love that transforms you into being a beautiful version of you and lets you have fun while doing that!

There is nothing more precious than the feeling of being at home… where you are fully known and fully loved.