Showin Love
by Josef Mensah on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 3:17pm
I’ve always had a reflective post on the last year and one that looks forward to the new one. This is going to be a little different.
I’ve been reading the Love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, and I’m certain life is all about love.
I’ve spent most the last decade getting to know myself. As it should be; I was eleven when it started and am twenty-one at its end. For me, this decade has been about “coming of age” (I’m actually not sure what age I finally arrive.)
I’ve learned so much about myself and the world around me. I’ve sought wisdom for my life, knowledge for my exams, perseverance for my trials and I think I am becoming a pretty good human being. But I have no qualms being real about not being able to love certain people. I’ve been stolen from, disrespected, undeservedly chastised, and there have been plenty of situations that I’ve disagreed with.
I’ve always been about what’s fair. I like rules; if you’ve ever played a game with me, you know I hate cheating and breaking the rules. I am totally an eye for an eye kind of guy. Yet Love teaches me to turn the other cheek, that the meek will inherit the earth. I say/sing to God “show me how to love like you have loved me” yet have a hard time loving the thief, the unjust, and the disrespectful. I have a hard time loving myself when I feel undeserved of it.
If I truly believe and accept the fact that though I have whored myself out to the world and my own desires but Creator God loved me even then (even now), then what love should I be extending to the world and “my neighbor”?
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. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
I want to love correctly. I want what I do when I do it to mean something and I have how to do it.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoiced with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails... (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
This is the example that was set by God. In his patience, he offers mercy, kindly offering redemption. He is a Jealous God, yet even still allows us to go our own way that if we chose w could give ourselves to our selfish desires. He boasts in His beloved Creation; He sought man while we were still in sin all the while His glory remains variably independent. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from west. He came in flesh testifying to truth, trusting in His Word, hoping that through the cross man would seek Him again. Love didn’t fail and never will.
I have taken liberties in the last decade to explore my faith and tussle with it. But after every question and every answer agreed or disagreed with, it all comes down to the real question did God love through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ? My answer is yes. Can I learn and adapt such a love in my life for myself and others? My answer is yes.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Here’s just one answer why. Faith is a decision brought by revelation. Hope can waver as circumstances arise. But as long as love is the greatest, it will guaranteed lead back to the first two.
I want to love next year and next decade. Love myself, others, and God all three in the way He loved me first.
Happy New Year.
Courtesy of gardenofgloom.deviantart.com
I’ve spent most the last decade getting to know myself. As it should be; I was eleven when it started and am twenty-one at its end. For me, this decade has been about “coming of age” (I’m actually not sure what age I finally arrive.)
I’ve learned so much about myself and the world around me. I’ve sought wisdom for my life, knowledge for my exams, perseverance for my trials and I think I am becoming a pretty good human being. But I have no qualms being real about not being able to love certain people. I’ve been stolen from, disrespected, undeservedly chastised, and there have been plenty of situations that I’ve disagreed with.
I’ve always been about what’s fair. I like rules; if you’ve ever played a game with me, you know I hate cheating and breaking the rules. I am totally an eye for an eye kind of guy. Yet Love teaches me to turn the other cheek, that the meek will inherit the earth. I say/sing to God “show me how to love like you have loved me” yet have a hard time loving the thief, the unjust, and the disrespectful. I have a hard time loving myself when I feel undeserved of it.
If I truly believe and accept the fact that though I have whored myself out to the world and my own desires but Creator God loved me even then (even now), then what love should I be extending to the world and “my neighbor”?
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. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
I want to love correctly. I want what I do when I do it to mean something and I have how to do it.
Courtesy of Mike Morgan
This is the example that was set by God. In his patience, he offers mercy, kindly offering redemption. He is a Jealous God, yet even still allows us to go our own way that if we chose w could give ourselves to our selfish desires. He boasts in His beloved Creation; He sought man while we were still in sin all the while His glory remains variably independent. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from west. He came in flesh testifying to truth, trusting in His Word, hoping that through the cross man would seek Him again. Love didn’t fail and never will.
I have taken liberties in the last decade to explore my faith and tussle with it. But after every question and every answer agreed or disagreed with, it all comes down to the real question did God love through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ? My answer is yes. Can I learn and adapt such a love in my life for myself and others? My answer is yes.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Here’s just one answer why. Faith is a decision brought by revelation. Hope can waver as circumstances arise. But as long as love is the greatest, it will guaranteed lead back to the first two.
I want to love next year and next decade. Love myself, others, and God all three in the way He loved me first.
Courtesy of http://www.inquiringmindsmatter.com
Happy New Year.
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