Love's True Nature; What We Can Never Accept

Getting up each morning gets harder and harder. As sickness spreads over my body, disorientation is becoming more present. Yet all the while, God strengthens. Even though physically I am weak, there is a driving force deep within, flowing from the Spirit itself and moving me each day.

And so I begin to learn about love.

It is like the coffee all over my lap this morning. My Mom left it in the cup holder next to me that has been broken for some time now. Upon turning the right corner, 20oz. of coffee threw itself on my only clean work clothes, scalding my legs. She knew the cup holder was broken and she knew we were coming to a corner, and I had no idea what was to pass, but those things are the ones that never mattered.

There is a dark side to love no one wishes to practice. It is the love that is beaten, bruised, unappreciated, overlooked, cut, jabbed, mis-interpreted, gossiped about, willfully bashed, stomped on, spilled on, and murdered. It is the one we want everyone to have for us but we refuse to have for everyone else. Because it hurts.

And truly, we cannot have this love. But through the Holy Spirit and by the example and blood of Jesus Christ, we can accomplish anything, even the greatest love known to man.

It erases all legalism and brings forth no choice but to walk in it or walk against it. It is so powerful it can change the lives of everyone it touches. In it, what we really are becomes so vivid, yet a forgiveness surrounds that absorbs all wrong and all debt. And in it, we don't have to change, we want to change. That is the Holy Spirit in us.

How great is our Lord! He heals the weak and humbles the strong. Thanks be to Him who has made the heavens and the earth. In Him will we always be satisfied. Apart from may we never be.

1 Corinthians 13

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If 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. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.