Sometimes I want love to be whatever I want, whatever I think sounds nice today. But love is specific, spelled out here in the middle of 1 Corinthians. And I know these descriptions of what love is, what love isn’t, what love does and doesn’t do are true because when I am loved for real, the love works. It doesn’t fail.
I desperately need someone to sit with me, to not be a jerk, to remind me of truth, to bear and believe and hope and endure all on my behalf. And when Love moves in my presence, I know it. And I begin to re-examine my own ideas of failure and success.
But love isn’t just something that happens to me, Love is someone who moves within me and invites me to move toward others.
When their load becomes too heavy, love invites me to bend down low and bear their burden.
When their faith becomes foggy, love invites me to come alongside and believe on their behalf.
When they can’t see possibility for hope, love invites me to stand on tiptoe and cast vision for a future we can’t quite see.
We are not promised that one day we will know the answers, have explanations or see a detailed map. Instead, we are promised that one day we will see face to face.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
Love is personal. Love is relational.
I get it wrong, blame others, forget to listen and fail to see.
But Christ moves me not to push but to lead; not to force, but to invite; not to tell but to listen.
Bear, believe, hope, endure.
May it be so in us. May it be so in me.
