Valentine’s Day. A day of high expectations for many. A
day of joy for some, disappointment or sadness for others.
I don’t even know where to start. This day has been full
of surprises already, and it’s still early. Focus may not be one of my strong
suits today.
My number one most favoritest passage of scripture ever,
1 Corinthians 13 … we’re gonna go with The Message version, i.e. the groovy
translation of the bible … let’s just read the whole chapter …
13 If I
speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but
the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with
power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I
have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m
nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own
to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t
love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I
do, I’m bankrupt without love.
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.
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.
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.
God reminds me of that phrase in verse 8, more
traditionally translated as, “Love never fails,” all the time. When I read
through the first part of the chapter, I always feel like it’s building and by
the time I get to verse 8 I want to be jumping up and down for joy and yelling,
“Love never fails!”
The last year or so for me really has been all about “love
never fails”.
When I want to give up, love never fails.
When I don’t feel like stepping out on faith but somehow
do it anyway, love never fails.
When negativity or negative circumstances attempt to mess
with my Zen, love never fails.
When that dude with the horns and pitchfork just needs to
get thee behind me, love never fails.
When I’m tempted to make things all about me, love never
fails.
When I don’t want to believe the promises God has made
me, love never fails.
When I want to rush the timing of God’s plan, love is
patient, and it never fails.
Love rocks.
So on this Valentine’s Day, much love to you all. It
never ever fails.
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