I’ve spent the last week meditating on a passage of the Bible, telling us how to use the specific gifts God gave us to minister to the
world around us – 1 Corinthians 14. Lots of good stuff in that chapter, but I haven’t even made it past
the first two words.
Pursue love. (NRV)
What a perfect summary of what it means to be a
Christian! We begin our new spiritual
lives with the awareness of the depth of Christ’s love for us. The love that is unmerited, unconditional,
and yes, unheard of for many of us. (It took
me nearly 25 years before I really began to comprehend His love for me – and I think
I’m still only scratching the surface.)
As I become confident in his love, what am I supposed to
do?
Pursue love. Or as Jesus defined it, love one another.
It's easy to love most of the people in my life. I love my husband, more every day. I fell in love with my children -- long before they were even born. And I love my extended family. The friends who have walked beside me through
a host of ups and downs. For all of
these, love isn’t really so much of a pursuit as it is a natural response to
the love I have received from them.
There definitely are people who I find difficult to love,
though.
Maybe it’s because of past actions or hurts they have
caused. Choices that they made that I disagree with. Perhaps they, or someone
similar to them, have wounded me in the past.
Or they have a life so different from mine that I have trouble
identifying with them. Whatever the
issue, loving them requires effort for me.
A great deal of it.
And yet it’s what I’m called to do.
It doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything that
they say or do. It doesn’t mean that I
enable them. Or refuse to speak words of
truth when I have been specifically instructed by God to do so.
It also doesn’t mean that I need to rush to solve their
problems with a particular program or ministry.
Give them a three point sermon and about what they need to change. Not immediately, maybe not ever.
It DOES
require me to accept them for who they are, and where they are in their
spiritual walk. To honor their worth as
a human being, giving dignity where there is none. To encourage, champion, and affirm.
Maybe, just maybe, that’s all I’m supposed to
do.
Pursue love.
What if that became our life’s quest?
