FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Sunday, February 18, 2007,11:27 a.m.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.....OR DOES IT?
I was just reading on my friend Nicole Brindle's blog, and she says, "Love, it never fails, does it." I know that she is not asking a question but rather either stating a fact or relating an experience.
We have a wonderful friend who, based on the passage in 1 Corinthians 13, regularly says, "We wage war with love, because love never fails." Obviously he is talking about God's love - the love that is always constant, always available, and always unconditional.
I want to love like that, but I have been noticing in the last year or so, as I intentionally attempt to love like Jesus, that I fail quite regularly and sometimes quite miserably. I have a friend whom I dearly love, and for whom I believe God has given me some extra measure of grace and faithfulness that would in a prophetic and tangible way for my friend be a reminder and reflection of God's love for him.
The problems arise because he is still a wounded human being, and doesn't love me back the same way. I get hurt. It's not the hurt that is ungodly - God is hurt when we turn our back from Him. There is one point in Genesis where God actually rues that He ever made mankind. That's got to be some pretty intense hurt that He is experiencing to say that. No, the problem for me comes when I react to the hurt that I've received, because I don't always react in a Godly way. I sometimes get angry - not a sin in itself, but I have an active mouth when I'm angry, so ...... Sometimes I pull back, and don't want to give my heart and my love to this friend anymore. I want to protect myself, because getting hurt is painful. Not a sin, perhaps, but neither, as I think about it, is it the way that God pursues us. I worry that my pursuit of a deep friendship and my desire to pour out love on this friend will leave me open to ridicule and misperception, so sometimes I second-guess my actions or words and they are left undone or unsaid. All in all, my desire to reflect God's unconditional love is falling terribly short. My love is failing.
God is obviously not like that. He pursues us each so hard that He gave up His life just to potentially be able to be in relationship with us. Would I die for my friend? Yes. That's the easy part, at least in theory. Would I walk through piercing arrow and after piercing arrow that he himself sends my way just to protect the painful areas in his own life? I'm trying. It's difficult, because those arrows leave marks in me when they come.
It has been an eye-opening experience for the last couple of years, as I recognize more of the wounds in my friend that cause him to have huge walls up against any kind of intimate friendship, and also as I realize that I myself am not so whole as I might have thought. Jesus, we both need more of You in every way.
My friend Nicole is right - and it's a good thing, too - Love never fails. God is Love. He never fails.
It's not just comfort. It's also hope.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..... (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a)
We have a wonderful friend who, based on the passage in 1 Corinthians 13, regularly says, "We wage war with love, because love never fails." Obviously he is talking about God's love - the love that is always constant, always available, and always unconditional.
I want to love like that, but I have been noticing in the last year or so, as I intentionally attempt to love like Jesus, that I fail quite regularly and sometimes quite miserably. I have a friend whom I dearly love, and for whom I believe God has given me some extra measure of grace and faithfulness that would in a prophetic and tangible way for my friend be a reminder and reflection of God's love for him.
The problems arise because he is still a wounded human being, and doesn't love me back the same way. I get hurt. It's not the hurt that is ungodly - God is hurt when we turn our back from Him. There is one point in Genesis where God actually rues that He ever made mankind. That's got to be some pretty intense hurt that He is experiencing to say that. No, the problem for me comes when I react to the hurt that I've received, because I don't always react in a Godly way. I sometimes get angry - not a sin in itself, but I have an active mouth when I'm angry, so ...... Sometimes I pull back, and don't want to give my heart and my love to this friend anymore. I want to protect myself, because getting hurt is painful. Not a sin, perhaps, but neither, as I think about it, is it the way that God pursues us. I worry that my pursuit of a deep friendship and my desire to pour out love on this friend will leave me open to ridicule and misperception, so sometimes I second-guess my actions or words and they are left undone or unsaid. All in all, my desire to reflect God's unconditional love is falling terribly short. My love is failing.
God is obviously not like that. He pursues us each so hard that He gave up His life just to potentially be able to be in relationship with us. Would I die for my friend? Yes. That's the easy part, at least in theory. Would I walk through piercing arrow and after piercing arrow that he himself sends my way just to protect the painful areas in his own life? I'm trying. It's difficult, because those arrows leave marks in me when they come.
It has been an eye-opening experience for the last couple of years, as I recognize more of the wounds in my friend that cause him to have huge walls up against any kind of intimate friendship, and also as I realize that I myself am not so whole as I might have thought. Jesus, we both need more of You in every way.
My friend Nicole is right - and it's a good thing, too - Love never fails. God is Love. He never fails.
It's not just comfort. It's also hope.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..... (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a)
