I often find myself searching for songs – more truthfully, lyrics – that apply to me during certain times of my life. Or, I'll take the lyrics of a song where a few lines work for a particular situation in my life and attempt to make the rest of the song apply as well (which usually fails). I'm also a sucker for figurative language and analogy – that's what I get for being an English major. So, when I hear lyrics that make use of these ornaments of language, I'm automatically inclined to make note of them in my trusty journal and force the square peg of their existence into the triangular hole of my personal life.
That said, driving home last week, I fumbled – quite literally, since my hand accidentally hit the button in my car as the SUV in front of me stopped short at a yellow light – upon a song that I haven't been able to get out of my head. Like I said, I usually go on hunts for songs that "fit," but this one came to me. "The Proof of Your Love," by For King and Country was playing on the radio channel that I had hit, and it caught me by surprise. I admit that I was initially enticed by the sound of strings, being an orchestra geek for the majority of my pre-college life, but I started paying careful attention to each verse, becoming more and more drawn to the truth of the lyrics.
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don't have love
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say
If I give to a needy soul but don't have love, then who is poor?
It seems all the poverty is found in me.
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
In the version that I heard, one of the singers, with an Australian accent that – in all honesty – further exacted my attention, quoted 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, The Message version. It goes like this: "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, 'jump,' and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love."
After rummaging for song after song that would fit into the mold of my life, I was finally handed one with no resizing, alteration, or crash-dieting necessary. I wondered why. I'm sure that God made that SUV stop short, that my hand happened to be near the radio dials, that I began tuning in at the very beginning of the song itself, and that it all happened because He needed me to listen to that song.
Asking God to help let my life be the proof of His love, I was immediately forced to remember how simple it is to make that statement, yet how hard it is to actually live it out. I want to let my love look like God and what He's made of, but am I willing to shape my life to encompass the character of His love? There are plenty of things that I'm willing to do for others each day, but I had to stop and ask myself how many of them I do with love? With patient love, kind love, humble love, esteeming love, unselfish love, forgiving love, hopeful love, persevering love, with love that never fails? The answer stung a little bit.
I will meet many people on my trip – and before and after my trip, for that matter – who will have needs that I will try to meet. What I need to remember, though, is that even if I give them all I have, even if I pour out my entire being in an attempt to relieve their pain and suffering, but don't love, I'm nothing, I have nothing, I get nowhere, and I'm essentially bankrupt with nothing to offer. I can build a house, give to the needy, nurse the sick, and feed the hungry, but the physical help, words, and efforts will eventually fade; when it's all said and done, only love remains.
I have to be honest, as easy as this may sound or as quick as I once thought it might be, the more I delve into what God looks like and what He's made of, the deeper my realization becomes of how difficult this will actually be. Loving others fully and letting my love be the proof of His love requires diligence, patience, and intentionality. And, it doesn't start in September when I leave; it starts now. The way of His love is entirely complete, and it doesn't have room for the creaking of a rusty gate.
