Love is the Ground of the Soul

Love is the ground of the soul. It is a living ground, like the fertile soil of the earth. We don’t create love any more than we create air; it’s just there, more to grow us than for us to grow it. We must yield to love, in order to open our hearts to the love surrounding us, seeking to caress us, like soil between our toes.

Not only the ground of the soul, love is also the ground of relationships. The other person may be the figure, as in how we perceive others, but the often unnoticed, usually unseen ground upon which we stand is the love itself. Love is between as well as within us, in which we may live, and move, and have our being.

We may deny we are standing in love. We may want to have nothing to do with this singular source of nutrients for the life of our souls, the only ground capable of holding and sustaining all that we are. We may want to wear protective boots, or fly away to the thin atmosphere above, which permits no weight of caring. Yet we nevertheless remain earthbound.

I have talked with persons who were seeking a center for their lives, who felt scattered and groundless. I would point them in the direction of love, beginning with the self-love which is already there inbuilt, but which they had not been unable to recognize, access, and affirm.

In a humorous attempt to describe the sense of groundlessness, I would describe an incident from my college days. A girl I was dating and I were on the “Mouse” ride at the old Riverview amusement park in Des Moines. Iowa. She sat in front of me in the two-person car, and I held her fast, as the car would repeatedly nearly plunge off its rail, while turning rapidly this way and that. She kept screaming, in fear and delight. And I kept trying to assure her by saying: “It’s all right, I’ve got you!”

In the middle of the ride, I had a sudden realization and began to laugh. She asked me what was so funny, and I said I would tell her after the ride was over. As we were walking away from the “Mouse,” I finally told her what had struck me so funny during the ride. I said, “Well, I had you, but nobody had me! We could have easily been tossed out of that car, and we would have flown through the air, with me still holding you tightly—even though that would not have helped you one bit!” She did not find that very funny.

Many of us go through life holding on to and being held by others. Yet the only solid ground capable of holding us securely through life’s unexpected turnings is love itself. We need to take seriously the Biblical equation of God and love: love is life’s true absolute. And that absolute is the foundation of everything else, the center around which life circles. Love, human and divine, is the absolute upon which to build your life.

Love is therefore more than a feeling about or decision for another. Love is greater than all the deeds it gives rise to or the words it summons forth. Love is the ground upon which to take our stand and find our roots embedded within. It is the silent network that connects us to one another and the God who is love. It is as present and humble as the lowly soil at our feet, and just as essential to grow the fruit of our life.

In truth, love was not made for us; we were made for love.