Love Is... | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Love Is... | Previous Challenge Entry
By Krista Brubaker
02/10/10
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An exasperated sigh escaped Jane's lips as she flipped another silver lined page. "God, I’m just not getting anything. None of these psalms are doing it for me. They’re beautiful, but I was hoping to be comforted by these words and I’m still so anxious.”

She laid her new ESV Bible on the bed and leaned her head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. Jane used to bear a nonchalant attitude toward her singleness, boasting that at least she never had to go through a nasty breakup. Although, in the past couple years her heart couldn’t help but sink a little more each time one of her friends or siblings found their true love and got married, while she continued to strike out. It seemed Jane had been asking God more and more often what was taking so long. Tonight, His Word hadn't given her any answers either. Maybe something in the New Testament would help. She picked up the Bible and languidly flipped toward the back. Here’s hoping.

“Okay, Matthew, Mark, Luke, blah blah blah, 1st Corinthians... hmmm, alright, show me what ya got, Paul.” She scanned headings within each chapter, not quite sure what to look for, not even sure why she desperately needed comforting. Jane knew God is sovereign and good, she knew His love was supposed to be all-satisfying, but some piece of her heart kept throbbing, aching for more.

She longed for the strength and love of an honest, God-fearing man. A man who would pursue her to the ends of the earth; a stud for Jesus! They may be few and far between but God had given her this desire, so he had to be out there somewhere, right? So what’s the hold up?! All of her efforts at finding him had come up short. Celibacy was starting to look like a decent way to go. Half-heartedly, Jane started into chapter thirteen.

“...and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” ...WAIT.

“Love is patient... ohhh... I looked right over that! How many times have I read or heard that phrase and not stopped to think about what it’s saying, right there in front of me?! Love is patient! That means letting go of my anxiety and trusting in Your way. I guess it’s listed first because it’s the hardest. I’ve been so frustrated with You, Father, and cast aside hope as if I’m a romantic failure. Thank-you Lord for giving me the desire for a Godly man, and not letting me settle for someone who doesn’t find his strength in You. Thank-you for being patient with me. I'm sorry I keep losing my patience with You. Please show me the truth of my spiritual marriage to Jesus, so I can rest in him while I wait on You to bring me the right man.”

After Jane's search through over thirty psalms, God only needed three little words to console her anxious heart. Sometimes His ways are the simplest and most obvious. When we look to our own ways, oftentimes tunnel-vision sets in and we end up stumbling blindly into hopelessness. When our want of control is surrendered to The Light of the World, He leads us unfailingly through storms and doldrums to the joys we have been promised.

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