After The Love Has Lost Its Shine

There is a story about a woman who kept a lamp burning in her window. When she first lit it, the flame was bright enough to guide a weary traveler home. But she became so enamored with the light that she stopped trimming the wick and pouring in the oil. She admired the shine without realizing the light was growing dim. The shine was never the source, only a reflection of something deeper. Because she did not pay attention to the source, she lost the shine. This is the feeling R&B artist Regina Belle captured when she asked, “What do you do after the love has lost its shine?”

Every relationship eventually meets the morning after the butterflies wear off and the text messages slow down. Life has a way of wearing on love. The question is never whether the shine will fade, it will. The question is whether there was ever anything of substance underneath it. This is exactly what Jesus addresses in the church at Ephesus. They had incredible zeal, but under the pressure of the Roman Empire and false teachers, the passion they once had began to fade. This passage offers timeless principles for rekindling love that has lost its shine, not just with God, but in all our most important relationships.