The conversation in my circle of friends recently has revolved around our calling as followers of Jesus to love people, even when the circumstances are hard and the people are difficult. This week it was put in the context of the 1 Corinthians "love passage". You know the one you hear at almost every wedding you've ever gone to.
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. Love never fails. (1Corinthians 13: 4-8, NIV)
These words seem easier for us to understand at a wedding, when the emotion of love is so evident that it is almost tangible. Before the realization that loving people, spouses or anybody for that matter, can be hard. Once it gets hard to love someone, for whatever reason, these words that Paul shares with us about how to love become that much more profound and challenging. Saying love is patient and love is kind is easy when you are still in the "I can't spend a second without you" phase or the "we should be best friends" phase. But those words are much more difficult when you think about that co-worker or classmate that is annoying, rude, loud, selfish, awkward; or in other words just plain difficult to love. However, that is exactly what we are called to do, love them. This is a much needed lesson for us to learn, and a necessary lifestyle for us to choose.
But there is something key in the midst of this lesson we cannot forget. We are able to love others who are hard to love, because we know that we are at times very hard to love, and yet God loves us. Not to get bogged down in semantics, but we cannot lose sight of this point. God does not love us because we are able to love others. We are able to love others because God loves us.
The reality is, sometimes we cannot believe that this is true. We cannot believe that in the midst of who we are or what we have done that God still loves us. Sometimes, we do God's job for him and judge ourselves as not worthy. There are other times we cannot see God's love for whatever reason, whether that is our own busyness or disconnectedness. Our mind gets so cluttered with to-do lists, and responsibilities, and errands, which eventually our soul becomes clogged and makes the presence of God's love a distant and foggy idea as opposed to the reality that we once knew. Then, to make matters worse, once we realize any of these things have happened in our lives, we can become even more judgmental of ourselves all over again for letting these things overtake our ability to live in the midst of God's love. And it becomes a vicious cycle.
In 1 John 4:8, it states that "God is love." Not that God is like love, or God loves, or God is lovely; but God IS love. Being a math teacher, I work with the transitive property all of the time. You know it too, if a = b, and b = c, then a = c. With that thought in mind, what if we looked back at the Corinthians passage and instead of reading the word love (a word that has been watered down in our modern English language) we replaced it with God. It would read:
God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails. (1Corinthians 13: 4-8, "remix")
In those moments where we have shut off our ability to experience God's love, or gotten to a place where we feel we do not deserve God's love, or have allowed all of the distractions of life to drown out God's love; maybe we should read these words about God's patience, and kindness, and inevitable endurance, and repeat them to ourselves and realize that these words are just as true for us as they are for the people we have a difficult time loving. We are called to love, even when it is hard. We are called to show people that God’s love is patient, kind, true, and enduring. But, how could we ever show anybody that all of these aspects of God's love are true for them if we do not believe they are true for ourselves?
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. Love never fails. (1Corinthians 13: 4-8, NIV)
These words seem easier for us to understand at a wedding, when the emotion of love is so evident that it is almost tangible. Before the realization that loving people, spouses or anybody for that matter, can be hard. Once it gets hard to love someone, for whatever reason, these words that Paul shares with us about how to love become that much more profound and challenging. Saying love is patient and love is kind is easy when you are still in the "I can't spend a second without you" phase or the "we should be best friends" phase. But those words are much more difficult when you think about that co-worker or classmate that is annoying, rude, loud, selfish, awkward; or in other words just plain difficult to love. However, that is exactly what we are called to do, love them. This is a much needed lesson for us to learn, and a necessary lifestyle for us to choose.
But there is something key in the midst of this lesson we cannot forget. We are able to love others who are hard to love, because we know that we are at times very hard to love, and yet God loves us. Not to get bogged down in semantics, but we cannot lose sight of this point. God does not love us because we are able to love others. We are able to love others because God loves us.
The reality is, sometimes we cannot believe that this is true. We cannot believe that in the midst of who we are or what we have done that God still loves us. Sometimes, we do God's job for him and judge ourselves as not worthy. There are other times we cannot see God's love for whatever reason, whether that is our own busyness or disconnectedness. Our mind gets so cluttered with to-do lists, and responsibilities, and errands, which eventually our soul becomes clogged and makes the presence of God's love a distant and foggy idea as opposed to the reality that we once knew. Then, to make matters worse, once we realize any of these things have happened in our lives, we can become even more judgmental of ourselves all over again for letting these things overtake our ability to live in the midst of God's love. And it becomes a vicious cycle.
In 1 John 4:8, it states that "God is love." Not that God is like love, or God loves, or God is lovely; but God IS love. Being a math teacher, I work with the transitive property all of the time. You know it too, if a = b, and b = c, then a = c. With that thought in mind, what if we looked back at the Corinthians passage and instead of reading the word love (a word that has been watered down in our modern English language) we replaced it with God. It would read:
God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails. (1Corinthians 13: 4-8, "remix")
In those moments where we have shut off our ability to experience God's love, or gotten to a place where we feel we do not deserve God's love, or have allowed all of the distractions of life to drown out God's love; maybe we should read these words about God's patience, and kindness, and inevitable endurance, and repeat them to ourselves and realize that these words are just as true for us as they are for the people we have a difficult time loving. We are called to love, even when it is hard. We are called to show people that God’s love is patient, kind, true, and enduring. But, how could we ever show anybody that all of these aspects of God's love are true for them if we do not believe they are true for ourselves?
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