Uncontrollable love

I can not tell you how many movies I've seen in which at some point in the story the one of the characters says to another character that their love for them can't be helped, that no matter what either one of them does, their love can't be stopped-it's uncontrollable. I always felt that describing love in this way slightly diminished its value, as I would rather someone chose to love me and understood that loving someone takes more than just following spell-like feelings;

but it's true, love is uncontrollable.

We were specially made with the ability to love, our hearts are wired to do it without ceasing. Yes, we have the freedom to direct who or what we love, but it is impossible for us to stop loving. It is like the hose of a vacuum cleaner, while it is made to pull in specific things, it strongly pulls at anything within reach no matter which direction it's pointing. You have probably heard our love and need for God described as a 'God shaped hole in our heart'. This is a good analogy, but a better analogy is that we have a God shaped vacuum in our hearts, of which only God can completely fill. In our desperation to satisfy the pull we can direct our love vacuum towards anything in attempts to fill it, only to cover some (if any) of the need. Despite the fact that we find bigger and greater things to fill the vacuums in our hearts, there are always cracks around our self-made vacuum plugs that allow in pain and evil.

And here's the scariest part of the capabilities of our love, even if we are not trying to satisfy it with earthly reasoning and pleasures if we don't set our love on God first, then our hearts will pull in something else. If you are not loving and praising God, you are devoting your love and praise to something else; and you can't control it.

Is your uncontrollable love directed to the One who created it and can fill it; or is the vacuum of your heart whipping around faster and faster, or is it laying still, satisfied to direct all of its effort on tiny specks of dust which are far below what it was made to do?