So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (TPT)
The Beautiful Prize – Love Series – Part 7
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
REFLECTION
“Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away. When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and set aside my childish ways. For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.” 1 Cor 13:8-13 (TPT).
Love isn’t a fluffy, feel-good, gentle breeze kind of emotion. It’s a gutsy, sacrificing, trusting, authentic, faith-filled, hopeful conviction. It’s something that we sometimes can’t help but feel – like falling in love, having a child, sharing with a friend – and then at other times, it's something we must choose to engage with all our strength.
Paul said, “My understanding is incomplete now…” Paul; The man who was once called Saul and used violence to control and manipulate; who was blinded by the grace of God; who spent thirteen years deconstructing and reconstructing his faith; who travelled and preached and was bitten by snakes and shipwrecked and imprisoned.
This guy, with all his experience and knowledge and wisdom; he was the one who said, “My understanding is incomplete…”
How does love heal? How does love build bridges between communities and cultures? In families and friends? How does love wring your heart out and fill it to overflowing at the same time?
How does love keep you warm at night, whether by tears or by arms? How does love embrace and accept and unite? How does it light the fire and passion of righteousness and justice? How is it steeped into the very fabric of the world?
Our understanding is incomplete. We’re just like Paul. All the years and knowledge and wisdom we can gain here on earth will not bring us to “know-it-all” status. The mystery of love and of God is so deep and wide and high and long that I dare say we may spend eternity excavating and exploring it… digging and seeking it out.
Be wary of people who try to tell you that they KNOW the whole truth, who think they can explain the endless mysteries of God to you. They are just as desperate as the rest of us to find something to hold onto, to keep them safe and secure.
But Jesus never promised us safety. He never issued us security cards. He didn’t tell us his greatest secrets… (or did he?) Maybe the greatest mysteries of God and heaven aren’t found in words, teachings, or lectures… perhaps we uncover them along the way, in the trenches of life.
In the living and the loving.
Paul did say that until the day comes when we reach the height of truth and maturity, three things remain with us: Faith, hope, and love – yet love surpasses them all.
So above all – dear friend and fellow human being, with everything that is going on around us in the world today, from terrorism to racism to politics to religion to education to justice to health to poverty and everything and everyone in between – let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.
Your turn… what is the real meaning of love to you? Leave us your comments below.
More tomorrow…
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