Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13 (NLT)
For the Love of God – Part 3
Paul is unearthing for us the deepest nature of God; his essence and fundamental makeup. And because God is in all things and through all things, love is present everywhere, always. Whether we see it or not, we have love in us and through us. It's like having your parent's blood type. God made you, and he made you with love, and love is in you.
When you strip everything in life back – fame, fortune, reputation, success, achievement, poverty, disease, failure, houses and things and stuff, governments, wars, museums and heroes, prisons and criminals… the only thing left to see will be the love that has been given and received.
1 John 4:8-12 says “…God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
Every time we love, receive love or choose love, we are acknowledging and reflecting God, whether we know or not. It's by our love, not our stuff or our labels or our positions that defines us and leaves an eternal groove upon the earth.
And love is a tough gig. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes it's misplaced, sometimes it's heartbreaking and challenging and impossible. It can seem easier to focus on our careers, our problems, and our things rather than putting our energies into loving our partners, our parents, our children, our friends, the broken, strangers, enemies…
When all is said and done, when we stand on the other side of eternity, and the fog clears, and we can see clearly, I bet we’ll be astonished at how united and connected we all are. We'll be able to see the deep and resounding effect our words and actions had on others. We’ll see in full the truth that God (divine and eternal love) was threaded through us all along. The trick is to not wait until then and right now, begin to see the connection you have, through God, to every other person you encounter. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 25, “When you cared for one of the least important of these my little ones, my true brothers and sisters, you demonstrated love for me.”
Love is our highest calling and most lasting accomplishment. It's like water and dribbles and leaks and flows into nooks and crannies that haven't seen light for years.
Remind yourself to smile, slow down and listen to another’s story, put your busy schedule on hold and hang out with friends, help someone get their groceries in the car. Try paying for the order in the car behind you in the drive-thru or mowing the neighbour’s lawn. Tell the random mother of toddlers that she’s a champion, or the trainee that they’re doing an amazing job. And just get down into the middle and mess and beauty of life with those around you. It’s the work that counts beyond all else.
“The love for equals is a human thing – of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing – the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing – to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy – love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.” Frederick Buechner.
Faith. Hope. Love.
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