“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
LOVE. A favorite topic of many.
Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. – C.S. Lewis
I’m not talking about the kind of love you see in a Nicholas Sparks film.
I’m not talking about the love that’s based only on feeling.
I’m talking about a love achieved outside of our own capabilities.
The only love that can come from the Father. That only He can give you.
“To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?” C.S. Lewis
This kind of love doesn’t care if you’re tired. It doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It doesn’t care if you’re busy.
This is the love of Christ. This love will knock down walls to get to you.
I’ve been learning a lot about this love of Christ each month. Every time I FaceTime my parents my mom will ask me, “What’s been difficult for you this month?” My answer still remains the same. Living in community. Now, now. It seems like a simple thing. How hard can it really be? Basically roommates right? That’s what I thought too until I realized that my life was their life. I depend on them and they depend on me. This community living is beyond just being roommates and it takes a deeper love bigger than myself. A self-less kind of love.
C.S. Lewis says, “But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.”
What’s difficult is I don’t always feel like being the most loving person. Especially on days that I am personally tired, hungry or distracted by something going on. I don’t feel like going to ministry. I don’t feel like staying longer when I have lunch on my mind to prepare back at home. I don’t feel like asking my teammate how they’re doing because I have other things I want to get accomplished. I don’t feel bad saying these things, because they are true, and I’m sure many of you can relate with different examples.
I’m saying that though we feel like this we don’t actually have to act upon those feelings. It’s easy to have conversations about how much God loves us, or what our “love language” is, but our words without actions don’t end up getting us much of anywhere. And they especially don’t end up giving God any glory. I can talk about how much I love my team, but do my actions exhibit that? Do I sacrifice my time for them, serve them selflessly? Not every day. Do I always walk into ministry with a loving heart? Not always.
But I can tell you that, “I love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength.” (Matthew 22:37) The love I have to offer is imperfect, but the love my God has to offer is perfect beyond my own capabilities. And in these moments that I’m not feeling the most Christ-like, I’m convicted by the Spirit, in the moment or later on. I recognize, I learn, and I progress forward with the help of God.
And in the opportunities he gives me to redeem myself I know that it’s His love that I cast out, not my own.
