People, people, people

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 completeness comes, what is in part 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 the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a 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. – 1 Corinthians 13:6-13

   Faith, hope, being known, perseverance, trust and love. How do these have a place in such a broken world? How do they have a place in such a broken me and why are they all so scary?

   Being known. I think when it all boils down to it, that is the hardest one for me to face when I have to look in the mirror. That is the one that gives me the most control. If I’m not known I can control the level of trust I have in people or whether or not I have hope. And I certainly can control love because if people really knew me, they certainly wouldn’t love me, especially the parts I don’t want to make known. So I hide and I pretend and I tell parts of my story and I put stock in things that I can do for myself because I know I can have faith in myself.

  I was really good at this, probably to good sometimes, but fortunately or unfortunately (I haven’t decided yet) I have made some friends that have taught me that this isn’t love. Faith hope and love don’t look the same to me now. Faith means realizing that when relationships are built on love, whether from you or from them that those never really go away and they will be waiting to reassure that faith when its needed. Hope looks like relationships that won’t last forever and I think these are usually the hardest. Seasonal friendship or changing circumstances makes hope seem harmful. The cynical side to me reads that “love protects” and I think that those two things cancel out. People are selfish and sometimes relationships dissolve or never really begin because someone else was thinking about what was best for them, whether that’s on my part or theirs. However, I learning that hope comes into play because everyday we are planting seeds, whether those are positive or negative they are being planted. I have had people that have come into my life that have left both well and not well but they have taught me something no one else could have in that moment and my hope is that I have been that to other people as well.

   Love, I’ve realized, looks like doing it anyway! How many ways have we told God no because its uncomfortable, hard, seemingly unchallenging or messy. The world is unbiblical, its complicated, hateful and hurtful, but unfortunately so are we Christians sometimes. If Jesus wanted us to stay in a bubble, He never would have modeled a ministry that required him to come down out of heaven and live among sinners. In fact, He found more love outside of the religious buildings away from the hypocrites and the finger pointers and did life with the outcasts, broken and uncared for. Verse 8 tells us that the speech, the knowledge, the prophesies will all pass away, but love remains. We can’t bring church buildings, sermon notes or teachings with us to heaven. But we can impact souls that we will meet there. Knowledge is absolutely important and usually very helpful when sharing the gospel. However, to share those things, relationships have to be formed first. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So we as Christians need to stop expecting the world to show up at church and if they do, to throw a little more love than knowledge at them and immediately try to fix them because their journey has looked different than ours. I think we often also forget that people inside the church are struggling or hurting also. I have found that as I actually begin to get involved in people’s lives that everyone has their own set of struggles, but everyone has some level of fear of being known. Even verse 11 talks about being a child and not being able to gain knowledge until he grew. So I am learning to meet people where they are at and trying to be vulnerable enough to have faith, hope and love in them. It is not easy, it hurts and its messy, but people, the one thing that caused God to sacrifice his own son for, should be worth it.

   What does this look like on a day to day basis? Let that driver over that purposely sped to the front of the traffic and waited till the last second to get over just because they wanted to be first. That may be the only kind gesture they get that day and knock you down a little in love as well. Why give them the power to dictate what you delight in? When that customer at work is yelling at you about something you have no control over, try to hear the brokenness, hurt and lack of trust in their voice rather than the awful things they are saying so you can be apart of making them a little more complete. Talk to strangers, have patience with a child that is hard to love, make a new friend or even pour yourself into a relationship you know is probably going to be seasonal. Work with refugees (I think this is going to be my newest undertaking!), volunteer at your church, say yes when people ask you to do something especially if you don’t want to do it. Position your heart to think, these broken, messy, uncomfortable people are worth it because, luckily, Jesus thought I was.