1 Corinthians 13

We love 1 Corinthians 13.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

How wonderful is love. How often I have heard these verses. I, too, love them and often come back to them. How encouraging it is that love counters all that is dark. We see how love counters that within us that we try to hide away. We see the beauty of love.

"Love never fails."

We quote in triumph.We are reassured. And it is true, love is triumphiant, love overcomes the darkness, love is beautiful, love never fails.

But how often we fail to love. O how often I fail to love. I am not reassured. I am not comforted. I am convicted.

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

I may speak in the very same language as the angels, I may perceive the very truth of God, I may have a faith as strong as Abraham's, I may serve others with all that I am even to the point of utmost suffering, but if I do not have love, it is all for naught. Everything I know and everything I do is of no consquence if I do not possess that mysterious and abundant love of God.

Yet, how do we love? How do I, with all my being and all my actions, serve God and people? How do I let love permeate my entire existence? I am convinced that I will only love as I am overwhelmed by God's love. I will only love as I stand in the unalterable grace of God and it let it transform me. Often, I focus on what I am doing, but it is clear that I can do the best things in the world, but it really doesn't matter that much if those actions are not an outpouring of love. That is not to say that I shouldn't strive to speak as the angels do, to trust as Abraham trusted, and to serve others to my dying day; all these things are on Christ's Way. But I must recognize that they are not the end. The end is love. The end is restoration of God's fullness of being in relationship to all creation in an infinitely divine and mysterious love that is continually poured out, received and poured out again.