Just the other day I heard some “happy” news about someone I “love.”
Although I mustered up a heartfelt congratulations what I really was feeling was…ugh…not so pretty.
For a moment, I secretly wished I was a toddler so I could own an award-winning tantrum.
(Picture me beating my fist against the floor and yelling vehemently “It’s not FAIR” and “When’s it going to be MY turn?”)
I know, I know, not very attractive, mature, or Christlike.
And then I was hit with the flood of regret.
Why was my gut response childish? Where was my faith? Where was my hope? Where was my love?
So tonight I’m lingering on this:
What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, [that I may brag,] but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.
Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent – it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice, but truth – yes, truth – is love’s delight! Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. Love will never be obsolete. Now as far as the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day when the Liberating King arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. But know faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (The Voice)
What are you lingering on tonight?
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