Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Endurance (03/22/04)
|
TITLE: LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS By Bobbye Terry 03/25/04 |
 LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND
|
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Paul agrees in 1 Corinthians. You can be the greatest orator in the world, the greatest writer, or say the best prayer, but if you don’t love others, you have nothing. You can foretell events. You can discover formulas, cures, the origins of man. You can even have unflinching faith. But if you don’t love others, it is to no avail. “How can that be true?” you ask. It simply is.
Paul tells us there are three things faith, hope and love. Yet the greatest of all three is love. He isn’t talking about romantic love, or desire or lust. He means unconditional love. Not love when the recipient does everything right, and not when he does things the way you would approve. But love without conditions or limitations, absolute.
It’s the kind of love that a father has for his child when he looks at her after she’s messed up, and he says, “You’re my daughter. I love you. Remember this: no matter what you do, no matter how bad it is, I will still love you. I always will.” That’s unconditional. And if that daughter has the same love in her heart, when she hears those words, her own heart will run over and fill others.
Real love, the kind God has for us and the kind he wants us to have for others endures all, bears all, and believes all. This love requires us to be patient, kind, understanding and not demanding. This is the kind of love you have from the spirit burning in your heart.
Dear God,
Help me to love unconditionally. Help me to have the patience to look beyond the failures of others and embrace their true essence; that part of others which is good and still whole; that part of the spirit that still burns brightly in their heart and endures forever.
Amen