Love (I wasn't)

The truth is I wasn't, but I thought I was.
They knew I wasn't, yet loved me because
they knew that love isn't tied up in knots,
that love doesn't end at the sound of 'cannot.'

They knew that love isn't rusty old chains
or striving for stringent, cold standards of shame,
but rather it's something that comes from above
in glorious splendor and rests like a dove
on the shoulders of those who embrace it.

How then do we live in a world so confused,
that sees 'love' as something to keep us amused
instead of as freedom from all our mistakes?
Oh how my soul from this poor life aches!

Awaken my heart, oh Father above,
and share with me all the great secrets of love
and give me this life that I've been dreaming of
as I wallow and wail in the pit.

Show me how to express what I feel
and give me the courage to fall down and kneel
when it seems what little things I can give
fall so very short of the life I should live.

I know I must follow before I can lead,
and all of this pain will make me succeed.
I have to be taught before I can teach,
but wisdom and love are not out of reach.

By His gift of grace we all can be free
and soon, as knees bow, each of us will see
that shallow, vain 'love' was not meant to be,
that this love of His inexorably
fulfills the great holes that as people we
have tried to complete for so long.