Why a Magazine About Love?
The Genesis
So . . . why a magazine about love? I would like to share with you my personal story, which led to what you are holding in your hands.
I grew up a Muslim in Damascus, Syria, then came to the States in 1984 to go to college. At first, the idea of the Cross seemed too easy: “You mean to tell me all you have to do is say, ‘I am a Christian,’ and you go to heaven? How about proving yourself worthy? And what about all of those bad things you will do? No punishment?”
Through a series of events that included coming very near death, suffering mental anguish, going through divorce, losing my father, and finally meeting Dana, I can now say “I am a Christian” knowing that Jesus is my way to salvation. I can also put to rest years of struggle with thinking that I would receive this salvation while my family would not, a worry that kept me from completely surrendering. With one statement just a month after I met her, Dana erased years of my trying to solve the big question: how can I receive this salvation while knowing my family is on a different path?
“It is none of your business; it’s God’s business. Your family is in the hands of God. And what about Karim and Jesus? No one else; just the two of you,” Dana said one hot night in the summer of 2008. I could not believe that the solution to what had kept me from true Christianity for 13 years was this easy, and this profound. And how fitting it was for the answer to come from the woman who introduced me to love as it truly should be: based on a mutual relationship with Jesus Christ first, then with each other. I told her: “If it’s only Jesus and me, He is my everything. My family is in the hands of God? Really?”
Which brings me to this magazine. 4LOVE is a personal journey of discovery and quest for this ultimate love. For the first time, at age 44, I realized that how God wants us to love Him — with our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls — could be experienced on earth. I don’t regret having gone through half of my life without knowing this; I am thankful that I have the second half to experience this love, to discover it every day for the first time, and to revel in its warmth.
I pray He allows you to experience the true human love that can come only after truly loving Him. I fail trying to do this every day, but it will be an intoxicating journey to discover stories of how people have arrived at this ultimate love, and how it became their mission to show others that we can all ultimately love with our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and our souls.
Would you join me?
