While hastily folding clothes to toss into a donation pile, I found my mind drifting towards the thrill I once felt when purchasing these very same items I was now discarding. How had my once coveted treasures now become proverbial trash?

Our brains receive a hit of dopamine when we acquire something we want. Maybe it’s a trendy new pair of shoes, a fancy kitchen gadget, a shiny new electronic, or some other “must-have” item.

But at some point, the newness wears off.

The trendy shoes? Scuffed.

The kitchen gadget? Not so practical after all.

And the device you were really excited about? Already glitching.

Of course, the same thing can happen in our spiritual walk.

When we truly have an encounter with Christ, brushing up against the magnificence of his glory and grace transforms our lives! We are ready to be “all in” for Jesus! The scripture refers to this as our “first love.” 

But just like the believers in Ephesus, we can slowly and unintentionally drift away from that first love. What once amazed and moved us becomes familiar and routine. The fuel that once kept us on mission, is often wrongly assumed to burn on its own.

Much like a newly acquired possession, we don’t lose our love overnight. It’s always a slow fade. We don’t drift because we stop loving Jesus. We drift because we stop noticing Him. Because we stop spending time in devotion to Him. Because we stop asking him to examine our hearts. 

It doesn’t take much in our suffocating schedules to crowd Him out, causing us to flip on autopilot to check boxes instead of slowing down to relish in the wonder of His amazing grace.

Thankfully, God didn’t call out Ephesus and stop there. He gave them a path back home: Remember, repent, and repeat (Revelation 2:5). He offers that same invitation to us.

Though we can “fall out of love” in many areas of our lives, our relationship with Jesus is different from our dwindling attachment to possessions. We don’t renew our spiritual first love by chasing a feeling. We renew it by re-engaging in a real, intentional relationship with Him.