Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
9 28 2026
The Possibility of Being Loved… Again?
When God Tenderizes an Aging Heart
I believe, in a world driven by status and wealth, that the greatest riches are the ones money can’t buy—genuine kindness, deep trust, and a love that stands firm through every storm.
Men don’t show their affection in some textbook format. But a handshake that turns into a hug, and then over time into a genuine fondness and love—as one man might have for a brother, or even a dad—is what happens when we allow someone close enough and long enough to matter.
And maybe that is what has me thinking about the possibility of being loved… again. And perhaps even more importantly, the possibility of loving deeply again.
We settle into our own realms of existence. Relationships, marriage, children, and love become automatic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But over the years, love—its feelings, its expressions, especially on the romantic side—can lose some of its fervor, passion, and intentionality to keep loving deeper.
We see a movie that stirs our emotions. We watch a love blossom, the music swells, and sometimes we are even moved to tears. And we leave, maybe even holding hands, warm and uplifted about it being the way it should be… or maybe remembering the way it used to be.
And maybe it was that way one day in your past.
The engagement. The honeymoon. Children. And then life either beats us down or dulls us down into a comfortable expression of love without that overflowing warmth and inner glow that used to be so intoxicating.
We still love them. And in our minds and hearts, maybe even more than we did when we got married. But we have settled into the realm of comfortability. Other than the outside world’s occasional invasions, things at home are comfortable, routine…and honestly, who can expect the same intensity as those early years?
Aren’t we happy? Aren’t we content? Aren’t we okay with where we are right now? Won’t there always be peaks and valleys, deserts and an oasis or two along the way?
Maybe. But lately I have begun wondering if I have expected too little from love because I have expected too little from what God can still do inside of me.
Honestly, I am a little befuddled.
As I am growing older, my love for Christ, what I hunger for in that relationship, and what I am coming to understand about praying for that desperateness within me for Him…is all growing. And with it is this yearning for a closer relationship. It is a hunger that is translating into loving Him more, thinking of Him more, and experiencing the joy of His presence even in the middle of things that would typically derail me.
And strangely—or maybe not strangely at all—I am finding myself loving my spouse more.
I mean in an overflowing kind of way.
Almost like a rush of tenderness. Wanting to do more for them. Feeling more deeply. Realizing that my emotions are peaking at a level I have not known in a long time.
And all because I am praying for the joy of Christ…for the love of Jesus to overflow within me.
His company and His presence are almost distracting me at work, for lack of a better way to explain it. I want to serve Him more. And somehow it is tenderizing me in places that the world says are supposed to callous over when we get older—when we supposedly become crankier, more removed, less social, and more short-tempered.
But what if growing older in Christ is supposed to do exactly the opposite? What if becoming more like Him means becoming more tender, more loving, more compassionate, more easily moved—not less?
And now I find myself questioning: What is happening to me?
I have become overwhelmed at times with the emotional presence of what I believe must be the Holy Spirit. And all of this is happening in the face of some daunting personal financial and serious health issues.
It makes me think of Paul and Silas, chained in prison, praising God and worshiping Him in the middle of the night (Acts 16:22–26).
A happiness and a joy without regard to the circumstances.
Not the absence of pain. Not pretending the chains weren’t there. But discovering that the chains didn’t get to decide whether they could worship.
There is a truth emerging in me that regardless of our circumstances—financial, health, loss, disappointment, or whatever else—why should those things determine how we walk through the valley of the shadow of death when Thou art with me? (Psalm 23:4)
Who does that without the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit?
Should that not be our cry and our plea to God? “Lord, if I must walk through it, then let me walk through it overwhelmed by You.” Psalm 23 promises His presence in the valley. Psalm 91 speaks of abiding under His shadow.
Not worshiping Him because everything is good, but worshiping Him in spite of what isn’t.
Who on this natural earth can take away the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who lives within us—the hope of glory? (Colossians 1:27)
The world can threaten what surrounds me. But, it cannot possess what God has placed within me.
Yet we can become so overwhelmed by the pressures surrounding us that they take us down. Like Peter stepping out of the boat in a tempest, we take our eyes off the Master and begin sinking into the panic of circumstances we were never able to control in the first place (Matthew 14:28–31).
And maybe this reaches beyond our circumstances.
Where does the refusal to allow a betrayal or loss to define the next season—or the next decade—of our lives come in?
How does one walk toward love?
How does one get lost in it again?
How does that change us?
And are our expectations simply too small for the outpouring of the love of Christ as we allow Him to empty out all the crud that has been clogging the arteries of our hearts?
It comes from knowing Jesus through His Word.
It comes from praying for an intimacy of which we may have only a shallow understanding.
It comes from being obedient in those little comforts and habits we have deemed unnecessary to surrender because we have convinced ourselves they really don’t stand between us and more of Him.
And slowly, as the relationship grows…we change.
Without even knowing exactly how or when, He begins retooling the clay that we are and fashioning it into a vessel that can hold His gifts…His treasure.
And indeed, perhaps we begin to feel something happening that we thought belonged only to younger years—the becoming of the person God always intended us to be.
The image in which we were made begins emerging again from this old, calloused being who has lived too much of life concerned about what I thought, what I wanted, what I needed, and what I deserved.
And I am discovering instead the joy that comes from putting Him and others first.
Maybe that is the answer to what has been happening to me.
Maybe I am not simply becoming more emotional as I get older.
Maybe I am becoming more tender because I am asking God to make me more like Jesus.
And maybe the love overflowing from a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit doesn’t remain confined to our relationship with God. It has to go somewhere. It begins filling the pool of our lives until it spills over onto the people closest to us—our spouse, our children, our friends, the men we walk beside, and even people we once found difficult to love.
And suddenly the heart begins filling with a whole litany of new desires for Him.
Perhaps the possibility of being loved again was never really about finding a love we had lost. Perhaps it is discovering that there are depths of love in Christ we have never reached—and when He takes us deeper into His love, somehow He teaches these aging hearts of ours how to love all over again.
Thank you for spending these few minutes with me today. My prayer is that these devotionals don’t simply give you something to think about, but draw you into a deeper love for Jesus Christ and His community.
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If you’d like to go even deeper, I’d love to invite you to join me continuing on ever Tuesday, until Oct 6th, for my free online course, Discovering Jesus. We’ll meet Tuesday evenings from 7:00–8:30 p.m. as we explore the foundational truths of our faith and, more importantly, deepen our relationship with Christ. You’re welcome to invite your spouse, family members, friends, or neighbors. I’ll provide all of the materials at no charge. Just let me know.. To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/zkb-dxcq-iau
Just a heads up we will be starting a special Men’s Bible Study at Grace Family Church Land O Lakes from 7 to 8:30am on Getting Closer to God and Discipleship. We would love for you to join us. Let me know if you would like to come.
Who else is worthy kari Jobe, Cody Cames,
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