Your Love Is My Drug

In a recent psychology lecture we engaged in a conversation about dopamine and liking, wanting, and reinforcement–better known as the the three components of reward. Through the conversation came the experiment of the Olds and Milner rats, which utilized lab rats, an electrified grid, and electrical stimulation of the brain. The rats circled the cage until they found a particular area or a device that provided the means for receiving a brain stimulation. In some cases the rats would run across an electrified grid to receive the brain stimulation. The rats would stop at nothing to have their brains, or medial forebrain bundles, stimulated by an outside source. This cycle would continue to go, and go, and go, and go. And then go a little more. Some of the rats would continue for up to 24 hours, never lifting their "feet," from the pedal that administered the simulation. It reminds me of a familiar song from middle school days...

Because your love, your love, your love is my drug

Your love, your love, your love
(I said)
Your love, your love, your love is my drug
Your love, your love, your love
[from Your Love is My Drug by Ke$sha]

But the rats never reached satiation. 

They were never fully satisfied.

Each rat would continue, hoping to finally feel successful or filled with the stimulation. They wished to feel full. But the stimulation never stopped flowing, it didn't fully provide.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the rat. 

I constantly search for ways to satisfy the holes in my heart, to feel full and satisfied. Grades, relationships, clubs, organizations, athletics, college events, friends, family, happiness, food, and so many other things compete to fill me. No matter how hard I try, or how hard I press a lever to receive stimulation, I will continue to be like the rat, without satiation. Unlike the rats we have an answer to feeling fully satisfied and it's ~Jesus~. In Ephesians 4:10 it says, "He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe." Jesus fills the whole universe and everything in it, which includes us! Jesus allows us to feel full, we reach satiation through him. Through Jesus we don't have to worry about continuing to live like the lab rats. We don't have to keep pressing the level hoping to get a glimpse of feeling full, because through his word and a relationship with him we feel complete and whole.

The love of Jesus is addicting and once you get a taste of it there is no turning back. Through his love you experience things that otherwise would not have been possible. He makes everything good and fills you with joy. "Love never fails," (1 Corinthians 13: 8) and, therefore, Jesus never fails. The Lord is love, He is joy, He is filling, He gives life. 

Be confident that a relationship with the Lord will satisfy your heart. Seek to spend time at his feet and soak in His word. He fulfills promises and makes us full. We need the Lord, like the rats need the stimulation, he administers the love and we receive it. 

Lord I find you in the seeking

Lord I find you in the doubt

And to know you is to love you

And to know so little else

I need you

Oh how I need you

Oh how I need you

Oh how I need you

[All Sons & Daughters–Oh How I Need You]