I don’t want to write about love today or love anyone today. Ever have one of those days? Maybe it’s because Valentine's Day was yesterday and the "love someone" message comes at us from everywhere; my inbox, my Facebook feed, my friends, my family, my kiddo’s cartoons. I’m a little tired of that word…Love. Or maybe it’s because I would rather be loved than do the loving. My "elder brother mentality" kicks in and says, “You have done great things and others should show you how much they love you for all the great you’re doing.” If you didn’t hear Pastor Bob talk about the elder brother, go back and listen to this. That voice is so quiet. I can barely hear it most days and almost never acknowledge it as truth I’m believing.
This morning I read 1 Corinthians 13 from the message and I saw something with new eyes. Take a look:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
1 Corinthians 8-10: Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Those quiet voices I let run in the background of my mind blind me to the truth. I can’t see clearly, I’m peering through a mist, trying to understand the world but my view is tainted and skewed. Romans 12 calls us to a genuine love, not a love that is for show or out of duty but that is real and authentic.
Sometimes I can read 1 Corinthians and feel called to a duty of love. Loving out of an obligation because of the love God has shown me. I’ve recently been reminded that everyone has a story, a way they take in and process the world. Even my kids. None of us see clearly our own needs or the needs of others; we are incomplete. I love the end of this passage! I can’t wait for the weather to clear and the sun to shine brightly. I can't wait for the day when I see clearly - the way God sees me and the way He sees others. But for right now I will trust steadily in God to show me what only He knows about others and myself, to know a day is coming when I will no longer be blinded by my false thinking, and to love as genuinely, authentically, and extravagantly as I can in my imperfection.
Your Connection Kit activity for this week is to join me in writing out this verse. Maybe yours will be as beautiful as the picture above…mine won’t be, but I’m still going to write it out. I'll use real paper and pencil or construction paper and crayons, because it's something I can do it with my kids, because I can do it over and over, and because as I write it on paper.... I will write it on my heart.