God, not the person but the subject-matter

Today, we studied Math 22:34-46 at our Sunday service at Kleipot Gemeente. It's a well-known passage and I've heard it a million times. But today, our graceful Father revived the message for me. It's about a revolution of love. It's more specifically about radically rearranging our affairs with all of humanity. And it all starts with a love-relationship with the Creator.

Part of my evening was filled with just thinking about what it means to love God with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds. I started off with trying to understand and classify my love for God, hoping to find some practical handles onto how to live this great commandment better. Here's a brief recollection of some of my thoughts:

We approach "love" in an abstract and multi-faceted way. Love has become a very abused and fussy term for your typical modernist. A good illustration of this would be our casual use of the same word to explain how I feel about coffee as well as how I feel about my fiancee. We can love people, we can love stuff and we can also love ideas (like philosophy or economics). How do I love God? What would best describe the kind of affection I have for Him?

A striking realisation: do I perhaps love God similar to how I love coffee or economics? I'm starting to wonder if I'm perhaps approaching God as a subject-matter, an idea or ideology. I'm also wondering when the last time was I related to God as a person...