Growing Up in the Faith Is Hard Work

-
I know that the last thing the world needs floating around is someone else’s treatise on love, but bear with me if you will because I need to review this. The world really would be a better place if we all lived out the I Cor. 13 definition of love, and in light of this Christians everywhere read, study and dissect this particular passage on a regular basis. You might be familiar with the proverb that states that the road to hell is paved with good intentions; similarly, we all have intentions of loving the people around us and the people we encounter daily, but the results are not always pretty.
When the rubber meets the road of my intentions, how do I measure up? When love is hard, I find myself failing miserably, and I have no excuse. Christ loved me while I was still a sinner, and because of this great love for me he died in order to offer me salvation. When I mess up, he is patient with me (long suffering even) and his discipline is not harsh, but rather kind in that it draws me back to him even when I don’t deserve to be drawn back. What about the items in the love chapter that should be lacking? Jealousy, bragging (in things other than Christ), arrogance, acting unbecomingly, selfishness, anger that is easily provoked, rejoicing in the sufferings of others, and overlooking wrongs are not elements of love; rather, where they are present, it’s a sure bet the love of Christ within me isn’t functioning properly. Paul finishes strong in his list of the characteristics of love: Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, [and it] never fails” (I Cor. 13:7-8a), NASB). I’m not sure why God puts up with me a lot of the time. I tend to major on the negatives and minor on the positives. I’m just positively messing it up royally, but he loves me anyway. I’m really hoping to grow up this year. Those of you who know my age are probably thinking it's really about time. About maturing in Christ, Paul says this: “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things” (I Cor. 13:11). I’m definitely not a child, but I act like one sometimes when things don't go my way, and it really doesn’t matter what I say if I’m not living out love. I’m encouraged by the last words Paul speaks in the "love" chapter. He says, “But now, faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13). Love is the greatest because it will never pass away, even though everything else will. Right now, though, I have faith and hope to sustain me until God is finished teaching me how to love. That’s encouraging.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. If you have concerns or questions, I will do my best to answer them privately. I will publish comments at my discretion publicly if they glorify God.

Popular posts from this blog

An Uncertain Affinity (2 Cor. 4:7-11; Gen. 3:16)

-
Image
Today in my devotion time, I came across a word that led me to another word. Can I say that this is my usual, lifelong problem in reading dictionary entries . . . I have a hard time stopping.  It’s a real problem. ☺ The word connected to the word I was looking up about the tabernacle was skeuos . In the Greek, this word carries the meaning “of uncertain affinity; a vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus (literal or figurative [specifically a wife as contributing to the usefulness of the husband]):--goods, sail, stuff, vessel.” I got caught immediately in the first part: “uncertain affinity.”  Uncertain means “not able to be relied on; not known or definite.” Affinity means “a spontaneous or natural liking or sympathy for someone or something.” Putting these two words together is something of an oxymoron, which in the Greek literally means “pointedly foolish” because of its seeming contradiction. How in the world can you have an affinity for something you don’t know? How...
Read more

Letting Go Is Hard (Hebrews 12:1-2)

-
I sit among boxes piling a bit higher each day as I pack my life up once again. I say again, but in the grander scheme of things I haven’t moved that often in my 33 years of married life, and since the kids were born, I have only moved three times until now. We will be renting for a while until we can find a place to land, so I am purging things much more robustly than I have ever done with any other move. Sorting through 33 years (plus some things I had before marrying) has been utterly distracting, difficult to accomplish, and slow to finish. Homes need things, and things need a home, but I am finding I have held on to far too much over the years. Letting go is hard. Stuff.  Too much stuff. Merriam-Webster defines stuff as “materials, supplies, or equipment used in various activities: such as personal property.” By this definition, we own what we need to DO something. I have done much the last five years while I have not been in the classroom daily. Pottery was the first thing ...
Read more

Under Construction (All of the Bible . . .)

-
Do you remember the logic  🧩 (or riddles or analogies or challenges—not sure what to call the kind of word puzzle I mean) of childhood past where one was required to look at a grouping of words and figure out based on their arrangement what they meant together? Something like this one below: CONSTRUCTION soul The correct way to solve it would be soul under construction . If you notice, construction is weighty, and the soul is small under the burden of change. Maybe it has seemed quiet to you lately from this quarter. It is true that I have not written in a while, but it has not been because my soul has been absent of either noise or the quiet contemplation of time spent in the Word. I have been wrestling with myself, not with New Year's resolutions but with what I know about God, with the disconnect I sometimes feel between living out truth versus what my flesh wants in all its ugliness. There is the other side of wrestling, however, when it goes on too long without acti...
Read more