Hopelessly Devoted

Picture of my journal wherein I was taking notes about the sermon.

One of the points in a sermon I heard recently was, “Live a life devoted to God.” If you are, like me, “of a certain age,” the word “devoted” might trigger the memory of the song in the movie Grease, “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” I’ve had this song in my head ever since. Maybe you do now, too. You’re welcome.

When praise songs were new to me, I abhorred those that sounded like love songs to Jesus. I would scoff, “What, is Jesus your boyfriend?” Those love songs made me cringe. Now, I have changed my tune (see what I did there? :D). Expressing love for Jesus with words that might be considered more appropriate in teeny-bopper love songs no longer causes mockery or scorn. Some songs I used to hate have now become favorites.

“Hopelessly Devoted to You” certainly is not a love song to Jesus. It’s a love song to the John Travolta character in Grease from the Olivia Newton-John character. In the spirit of “everything is sacred,” though, I like thinking of being hopelessly devoted to God…and vice-versa, remembering he’s hopelessly devoted to me. Does that sound conceited and silly to you? If I said my dad is hopelessly devoted to me, my husband is hopelessly devoted to me, my sister is hopelessly devoted to me, or my best friend is hopelessly devoted to me, would that sound conceited and silly? To me, no. Knowing those people I love also hopelessly love me is something I cherish.

I talked about this idea of hopeless devotion to some friends, and one of them told a story about seeing an author on a panel at a writing conference who said, “When I go to the library, I pray the book I need will be there.” She went on to say, “I can’t help it I’m God’s favorite.” Haha. I love it.

You can’t help it, you’re God’s favorite. He’s hopelessly devoted to you.