Recently, while reading through the famous love chapter in Corinthians, I realized that, because of the familiarity of the words, they were simply washing over me without meaning.\u00a0 I decided to take each verse and think about what it would look like for me to live out the words.\u00a0 What follows is the result of those reflections.\u00a0 It is not meant to be a paraphrase or even a commentary; it is a personal reaction and something God is challenging me with.\u00a0 I had a chance to share these ideas at our field conference, and many asked me for my notes afterwards, so I decided to post it here.\u00a0 I hope that these ideas challenge you to think about what love means in your own life.<\/p>\n
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This is how important love is:<\/p>\n
If I could speak Nahuatl perfectly and could rattle off 24 syllable verbs without missing a beat and spit out tongue twisters like \u201ctishkitskiliski\u201d and could impress my language helper with my quick mind and good ear, but don\u2019t love her, then I sound like someone smacking their gum or running their fingers down the chalkboard.\u00a0 It would be better if I shut up.<\/p>\n
If I\u00a0had the kind of insight that comes from God and could understand the profound mysteries of the faith, and didn\u2019t have love, then that impressive wisdom counts for nothing.<\/p>\n
If I had enough faith to tell the people of Las Moras that God is the one who sends the rain, during the worst drought in years, and if I were bold enough to tell the woman whose hand I\u2019m holding\u2014who I\u2019m pretty sure is going to die\u2014that God is able to heal her…if my faith were that impressive, but I didn\u2019t love the one whose hand I was holding that makes my words worth zero.\u00a0 That makes me nothing.<\/p>\n
If I were generous enough to give the loaf of bread I just pulled out of the oven to some kids who came to visit, but didn\u2019t love them as I passed out slices, that\u2019s worthless.\u00a0 Or, even harder still, if I were generous enough to give five hours of my time to help my neighbor enjarre<\/em> her house, but didn\u2019t love her as I worked, then I\u2019m no better off that if I had shut the door in her face or hoarded up my stuff in silos like the rich man.<\/p>\n If I had no thought for myself, and were willing die a truck accident on the side of a mountain road, or a shower of balazos<\/em> from a drunk guy near our house, or a narco transaction gone wrong\u2026all for the sake of the gospel, but don\u2019t love the people needing the gospel, then my death would be pointless.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how important love is.\u00a0 Now, let me give you some examples of what love is like:<\/p>\n Love is happy to see the fourth visitor at the gate, even before coffee.\u00a0 Love is happy to see the seventh visitor, who came right during lunch.\u00a0 And the seventeenth, who came right during dinner.\u00a0 Love certainly would not huff in exasperation at the same person coming back three times in a row, each time forgetting one little favor to ask.\u00a0 After all, love is patient.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t laugh inwardly at people who are socially awkward and love certainly does not make jokes about them to their friends.\u00a0 Love is not a jerk.\u00a0 Love is kind.<\/p>\n Love isn\u2019t envious when co-workers have better support, or cooler toys, or more interested churches.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t petty enough to be upset when someone tested higher on a language evaluation. Love remembers that we are all siblings and that their victories are a victory for my family.\u00a0 Love is not jealous.<\/p>\n Love does not have a high opinion of itself.\u00a0 It does not consider any job beneath it, not even dishes.\u00a0 Love doesn\u2019t allow me to consider myself so indispensable to the team that I would worry about how they would carry on without me.\u00a0 If I think I am necessary, then I do not understand the source of my strength.\u00a0 Love would never act that way, because love is not arrogant and it does not brag.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t let sarcasm take cheap shots.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t vent about co-workers to others.\u00a0 It does not roll their eyes at their mom, even as a grown up child.\u00a0 After all, these things are not flattering to those who bear the name of Christ.\u00a0 And love is not unbecoming.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t stress out about whether it got to do what it wanted on the internet before everyone else used up the daily limit.\u00a0 It certainly wouldn\u2019t be so self-focused as that.\u00a0 It does not try to impress people (not even supporters) or manipulate circumstances in its own favor.\u00a0 No, love does not seek its own.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t care if it took out the trash the last ten times in a row.\u00a0 It does it the eleventh time happily.\u00a0 Love doesn\u2019t notice that it is always the one who asks for forgiveness in a relationship and wonder why the other person\u00a0never feels the need.\u00a0 Love knows that those mental tally sheets are the death of fellowship.\u00a0 It is impossible to get a rise out of love, because love is not provoked.<\/p>\n Love assumes the best of their co-workers’ comments.\u00a0 And even if that co-worker DID mean that comment negatively, it doesn\u2019t matter, because love doesn\u2019t keep track of those things.\u00a0 Love doesn\u2019t take into account a wrong suffered.<\/p>\n Love does not make crude jokes or unsavory comments.\u00a0 It takes no pleasure in gossip, even the gossip sometimes labeled as prayer requests.\u00a0 Love cannot enjoy hearing that because love does not rejoice in unrighteousness.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t get annoyed when criticized.\u00a0 It appreciates the wounds of a friend, no matter how difficult it is to hear, because love always celebrates the truth.<\/p>\n Love does not give itself the luxury of pet peeves.\u00a0 It reacts calmly when my god-daughter asks me for the fifth favor in as many days.\u00a0 Love bears everything.<\/p>\n Love submits calmly in all circumstances, because it trusts that everything from the hand of God is good.\u00a0 Love believes.<\/p>\n Love doesn\u2019t know any lost causes.\u00a0 In fact, it has confidence that even Pancha, the hardest, most stubborn, most manipulative person in Las Moras will get saved.\u00a0 And love certainly doesn\u2019t forget to pray for her, expecting to welcome her soon into the Family.\u00a0 Love hopes.<\/p>\n Love is OK with being sick, even for a long time.\u00a0 It certainly doesn\u2019t throw a fit when feeling not-as-strong, and not-as-smart, and not-as-able.\u00a0 It remembers that the Source is strong, and whole, and wise, and powerfully able.\u00a0 Love endures everything.<\/p>\n This sums up the amazing thing about love: it will last forever.\u00a0 See, the other good gifts that God has given us here on earth to serve him and glorify him will someday be pointless.\u00a0 There will be no reason to prophecy, for the future will have come to pass.\u00a0 There will be no need for knowledge, or at least for the knowledge we have now, because it\u2019s only partial and it will get replaced with a more perfect kind of understanding.<\/p>\n Think of how it was when we were children.\u00a0 We had our wants and our thoughts and our immature conversations, but when we grew up, we set all those things aside.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it will be when we are living full time with the father.\u00a0 The things we thought we saw clearly will look completely different.\u00a0 The things we thought we knew will be understood differently.\u00a0 In fact, we ourselves will know the joy of finally being understood fully for the first time.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s an example of how the future will affect three good things: faith, hope, and love.\u00a0 Faith will be pointless, because the things we were trusting without seeing will be completely and undeniably laid out before our eyes.\u00a0 Hope will be unnecessary, because the things we longed for and expected to happen will actually happen.\u00a0 But love, love will remain.\u00a0 It will be a different kind of love than we\u2019ve ever known, because it won\u2019t be bogged down by all the sin, selfishness, and other trash that tarnishes it here, but it won\u2019t end.\u00a0 It won\u2019t fail.\u00a0 It won\u2019t disappoint.\u00a0 Love is eternal.\u00a0 Love is necessary in every gift and talent, in fact, it is the part of what we do that\u00a0changes the wood, hay, and stubble of “works” into the gold of true service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, while reading through the famous love chapter in Corinthians, I realized that, because of the familiarity of the words, they were simply washing over me without meaning.\u00a0 I decided to take each verse and think about what it would look like for me to live out the words.\u00a0 What follows is the result of 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