Each week I go to an organization weekly meeting called Cru at UNC. This is a Christian organization that helps college students come to know Jesus better. This past week, our speaker asked us the question, "Have you ever followed Christianity without following Jesus?" This is a compelling question to make you think, do I follow other Christians, or am I following Jesus himself?

So the question remains, have you ever followed Christianity without following Jesus?

My answer was, yes.

Our speaker at Cru shared with us some Scripture that helped us understand what it truly means to be a Christian. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "For the love of God controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

So what does all of that mean?

Our generation likes to define love as a feeling. Whenever you have a boyfriend/girlfriend and they make you feel good about yourself, or they make you happy. These are emotions, and that isn't how God loves. God displays love. God loves you so much that he sent his only son to die for you. That isn't just a feel good kind of love, that's an action of his love for you. Real love goes beyond emotion and grows deeper than how you feel.

Then our leader at Cru asked us, "Are you in love with the emotion that God gives you or the actual person Christ is?"

I mean don't get me wrong here, it's ok to like the feeling that God gives you because of his infinite love for you. But, you can't let it control your love for him. Because then you start writing your version of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians. Instead of it being, "For the love of God controls us," you're rewriting it as, "The feeling of God controls me and if I feel it, then I'll obey. But if not, I'll fall away."

The love of Christ has to be an anchor for your soul or you will fall away.

Don't turn to the puppy-dog kind of love that you feel when you first start dating someone because they make you feel good. That love doesn't last. If you keep dating that person after a while, that love will grow deeper. And there is no deeper love of Christ than his death and resurrection for you and me.

He loves you despite how you feel.