Love Never Fails
Will you go on a journey with me for a bit? I’m asking you to leave the things that distract you and get in a quiet place and engage with me for a minute. I want to take you to the center of yourself to help you investigate something you already know.
Life is confusing. We have all of these moving parts to deal with in just living it. All of the physical things are but vanity. All of the spiritual things matter but there is much conflict and doubt sometimes about what they all actually mean. We live and we experience things both inside our hearts and outside in the world. We respond in different ways and things come and go and we live our temporal existence out and then we fly away.
But I want you for a minute to consider the one thing that is eternal that is possible for us if we allow it. The possible thing, the thing we are capable of – the eternal purpose of being created in the image of God, is love.
When we are faced with conflict, hatred, strife, and confusion, love is available to us. It is the response of God to evil. It is the prayer for our enemies. It is the soft answer that turns away wrath. It is the forgiving spirit that doesn’t hold a grudge and lifts the burden for both the offended and the offender.
When we are struggling with disappointment, loneliness, or grief, love still remains for us. It reminds us of the reality of a genuine relationship that lasted if only for a while. It helps us remember good times of happiness and fulfillment. It brings back to us the feelings we expressed and shared with others, though now gone. It is the consoling comforter that tells us all of the loss was worth the having.
When we are faced with difficult choices in life, love is our dearest companion. Perhaps the choice is to let go of things we cannot change. Perhaps it is the choice to cling to God by faith when there are no signs of what our future may hold. Love can be the choice that causes us to make sacrifices regardless of whether or not the outcome benefits us personally. And love is the decision to be faithful to our commitments when we seem to be the only one committed at all.
When we take our final bow on the stage of life, love will be our curtain call. It will be the testimony of who we were while we were here and who we touched or affected in a positive way. For the people of God, it will be the theme that pronounces that we were once transformed by the cross of Jesus, so much that it determined the avenue of our steps. Love is going to be the one thing that remains when hope becomes reality and faith becomes sight. It will be the smile we saw on the face of our infant children. It will be the memory of our mother and father as we grew up in their keeping. It will be the song on our hearts that caused us to do anything significant, if even for a little while.
Don’t be distracted so much by the life you are living that you forget about love. Don’t be afraid of its consequences or sacrifices. Don’t be unwilling to freely give and receive it. A life without love is really nothing more than just existing. Love is what we were meant for, what we were created for, and what Jesus died for.
You see, God is love. And only love is eternal. And love is worth dying for. And love never fails.
“Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” -1 Cor. 13:7-8a.
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
Photo background credit: Michael Fenton on Unsplash
