Though this short string of words could mean several things, there are two predominant ways that it’s teaching me in this season. It’s reminding me of the abundance of love and that the call to love is never completed. The Abundance of Love The first truth I’m reminded of today: Love doesn’t run out. It doesn’t follow the regular logic that applies to most resources. Giving it away doesn’t result in depleted stores when we’re sourcing our love properly. In a world where scarcity is proclaimed loudly and often, it’s tempting to hoard our love. But much like manna, it is intentionally created with a short shelf life. When we…

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13 I’ve been meditating on this sentence for the past month, conflicted by what I’ve always thought it to mean, what I want it to mean, and where it intersects with a messy world. I’ve longed for clarity, or rather to be able to neatly package an understanding of unconditional love. But I’m just not sure if such a package exists. The appeal of hard and fast, absolute rules makes sense. I appreciate the black and white simplicity of that path and the independence that that would permit us rather than the complicated work of…

Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13 As demonstrated in this portion, love is a matter of right relationship. Where I’ve misunderstood this in the past is that I’ve taken right relatedness to mean the equivalent of flawlessness. But relationship is banter. It’s back and forth. And it’s this back and forth that renders us more loving than before. Rather than an invitation to spend a lifetime striving towards a standard we can never meet, the sort of relationship we are called to is about honest connection with God about who we are today. And…

Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13 If we eliminate the negatives, we find that the absence of envy, boasting, and pride imply the presence of something else. Perhaps they imply that love is content, benevolent, and humble. Perhaps they imply that love celebrates the good always. We celebrate its presence anywhere. We value goodness so highly that we delight in it even when it unfolds in the life of someone else. We enjoy the presence of good, even when it’s not on our preferred time table. We’re content with the good bestowed upon us and we don’t boast or feel proud…

Love is patient. Love is kind. The two both seem to sprout forth from a common ground of grace. Where patience is a matter responding with grace, kindness is a matter of initiating grace. Patience is gracious in its reaction and kindness is gracious in its proactivity. Kindness seeks out ways to exert extra thought and effort on someone’s behalf. Kindness necessitates that we think of another—which therefore means that our thoughts take a break from being on ourselves. And so when we pursue kindness, we are also allowing space for the cultivation of selflessness. And that kind of seems to be the way of it. As I meditate on…

I’m meditating on the love passage in 1 Corinthians these next several days as we enter February beginning with: Love is patient. It’s tempting to isolate each of these attributes of love and feed ourselves a message of try harder. To tell ourselves that we need to will ourselves to better patience. But this way of thinking is built upon a faulty foundation, a foundation that believes we are capable of self-perfection and we’re just not trying hard enough. It’s a wearying journey. And love calls us to patience with others and also with ourselves. When we notice a lack of virtue in our lives, it’s obvious that we have…