Love

Last Sunday before I headed to my church to sing at UpStreet, I spent a little bit of time just meditating over life and hanging out in 1 Corinthians 13 for a while.  I found myself there again this morning, because God really spoke to me in that time and I wanted to keep my mind on those thoughts and really let Him work on me more.

I started out because, honestly, I can actually from time to time act in ways that are not very loving.  I know that's probably a shock to some of you (okay, not really :) ) but it's true.  So, where better to go and meditate than a passage devoted to defining love.

The one verse that really caught my attention had these phrases....

(Love)

Always protects

Always trusts

Always hopes

Always perseveres

(I'm reading this from my note card right now).

I know that this passage is often read at weddings, but the context in which this letter was written was anything but matromonious.  This Corinthian church was rife with problems... massive sexual sin within the church, people dividing forming divisions and alliances around favorite teachers, the abuse of communion... you get it - not the pretty portrait we usually paint around it.  This love is for the body of Christ... his imperfect church redeemed and made perfect by the work of Jesus on the cross.  In other words, there is no condition in which I can say that I'm not obliged to love a fellow believer.

Thinking about love always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, and always persevering... it threw two thoughts into my head.  The first is that this love flows from the love of Christ which is all of these things perfectly.  If God has called you out of darkness and into His glorious light, then He will always protect, always believes the best about you, always has hope for you for the future, and will persevere with you to the end.  This is huge for me that someone as big and strong as God is behind me and loves me like this.

The second is (and is related to the first)... this love is devoid of "self defense."  Self defense being that we hold back on being authentic because we are afraid to get hurt or feel or experience rejection.  I guess it's understandable when we are dealing with other people to wear a mask because we're dealing with imperfect people like me that need grace every day, but what's crazy is when we approach God the same way.  I mean, who are we helping when we don't get real with God when He knows what's going on anyways, and what's even crazier is that we're holding back access to sometimes the very area He wants to heal when we withhold access to those areas we are defending.

I feel thought that Paul is urging us that if we are truly to live a life of love and live plugged into Christ's love that we have to be authentic with each other as well and live out of faith rather than self defense.  If we are not realistically real (unwise "realness" is not recommended... that'd be another blog... I'm talking about trusted relationships with friends and with God) with one another, then we are denying ourselves the intimacy in the Ecclesia that God desires when He prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one.

Because we can't...
Always protect,
Always trust,
Always hope,
Always persevere

... with another if we are so busy building up hedges around ourselves.  From my experience, all that does is wall me up and really impedes any opportunity for me to give, or receive the protection, trust, hope, and perseverence that authentic agape love in community provides.  It also (like I said, we do this out of a lack of faith) assumes that I in my power must provide for myself what God wants to provide for me through His grace... and since I can't perfectly love myself those attempts always fall short.

In my expereince, if I surrender my desire to protect myself and surrender my wounds to the love of my Heavenly Father, he will come and heal these through His love... He is the source and author of love.  The love that.

Always protects
Always trusts
Always hopes
Always perseveres

And when I let this love cover me and complete me, then I am free to authentically go out and do the same to others without any pretense.  This has been my prayer for a couple of years now, and it's been pretty cool to see how God has really changed my heart in this process as I allow myself, covered in True Love, to live this out in my circles and with the friends that I love.  I am often reminded that I am a man in process, but I can truly say that I'm very grateful that I'm not the only one involved in the process.