It has been an endless season of learning about this so-called love.
Even after years of it, it still seems to be the one concept that is so hard to grasp; the idea of love in its fullness, from God to myself to others.
We just finished a 5-week Spiritual Gifts small group series with Hillside last week. During the first week, we read through different passages in the bible where it spoke about these spiritual gifts that we attain once we are in the body of Christ. One of them was from 1 Corinthians 13; yes, the passage about 'love' that everyone always quotes, "love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast..." Tis the classic wedding verse or the go-to passage whenever we try to encourage how to love others in a godly manner. What was different this time around was that we read it in context from verse 1 to 3.
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."Without love in my heart/mind/actions, I am unable to give anything, be anything or gain anything. The gifts that we have and the people that are placed in our lives are not in vain. Within the present kingdom, we have the burden and responsibility to act out in love, or our lives would be meaningless.
On a slightly different note and back to the title of this post, I have been seeing the varied kinds of love that exist in my life. The 3 Conditions of Love: 1) unconditional, 2) conditional, 3) conditioned
The idea of unconditional love has seemingly become more of a mystery to me in the past months. Perhaps because I find how conditional and fickle the human flesh tends to be? I find that my love for myself and others falls short because of my pride/selfishness and just the sinfulness of my flesh. And then there is the conditioned act of love, where you live life thinking you love someone, which (could have) existed earlier in the days before, but along the way, the love just becomes a habitual act. This one scares me because sometimes you can not see that the love you give/receive might not be an active, present love. We get so blinded by the circumstances or the high's and low's of it all, that the presence of love disappears.
Simply put, it is impossible to always wholeheartedly love someone. So to imagine a God who loves me unconditionally kind of boggles my mind. It is hard to truly understand this love, but I read in Isaiah this afternoon where God reminded me: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9) I will never be able to understand the fullness of His ways. Tis the faith that comes into play...
"For the LORD's portion is his people... In a desert land he [finds me], in a barren and howling waste. He [shields me] and [cares for me]; he [guards me] as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone [leads me]; no foreign god [is with me]." Deuteronomy 32:9-12I read that this morning and got so owned. Before I seek him, he desires after me. I am HIS portion and He alone walks my way and guards my path. (?!) You are good, when there is nothing good in me.
Man, I really will never be able to grasp the ways of the Lord...
I want to love you so.
