A Life Worthy

Love is patient, love is kind  (1 Corinthians 13:4).

Kindness is harder than it looks.

I mean, on the one hand, it’s no big deal. It’s not like you’re rushing into a burning building to save puppies and babies and my grandma.

That’s heroism, not kindness.

It’s not like you’ve locked yourself in a lab and dedicated your life to the eradication of smallpox or polio.

That would be selfless, and also kinda sad since we have those diseases under control, but not kind.

It’s not like you’re staring unblinking down the barrel of a machine gun, singing hymns at the top of your lungs and slightly off-key while a terrorist demands that you reject Christ.

That would be…I don’t know what that would be, but it’s way beyond kindness.

Kindness is the little things.

Letting someone go ahead of you in line

Helping someone up after they’ve tripped, and not laughing until you’re sure that they’re OK

Listening to the story you’ve already heard 1000 times and laughing even though it wasn’t even funny the first time

In short, kindness is seeing the other person, noticing what they need, and meeting it–even if it costs you something and gains you nothing.

Let’s face it–Your chances to be heroic today are pretty slim. I mean, how likely is it that you’re going to come across a burning building, unless you set the fire yourself, and I’m pretty sure you don’t get hero points in that case.

But

you will have multiple opportunities to be kind today.

Take them.

Happy Thursday, Beloved

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

The opposite of love is not hate.

The opposite of love is pride.

When you operate in love, you put the loved one first. Everything you do is for their benefit. When you operate in pride, you put yourself first. Everything you do is for your own benefit. 

Pretty simple, really

All the spiritual gifts and Church roles that Paul has been discussing have one thing in common–they must be exercised in love. If not, they become sources of pride and self aggrandizement and LookatmeamInotawesomeness. 

God will not honor that.

He will not bring the power of the Holy Spirit into that.

He will not bless that, any more than he blessed the Tower of Babel–and for much the same reason.

And so, your gifts and your work will come to nothing.

Beloved, do not focus on your spiritual gifts, or on your role in the Church. Focus on the people you serve, and the love God gives you for them. Pour out a foundation of love, and see what God will build on it.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts (1 Corinthians 12:29-30).

According to my trusty NIV Study Bible, this passage has two possible translations. The way it is written, “But eagerly desire the greater gifts,” is an encouragement to pursue God and the blessings of His Spirit. “Further up and further in,” as C.S. Lewis would say. That is the translation NIV goes with, and it works for me. Another possibility, however, is “But you are eagerly desiring the greater gifts.” In this case, Paul would be rebuking his readers for going after the status and prestige that might accompany more dramatic gifts. The guy who is throwing around prophecies in church will get a lot more attention than the man who is quietly tending to the needs of the poor, and some people are drawn by the spotlight. 

It seems to me that either translation, taken in context, comes around to the same concept:

It’s not about you.

The gifts are given by God, for HIs Church, through you. You and I are like the hose in my garden. We deliver the water to the thirsty plants. If we start to think that we are overly important in this process, then we get kinked up and useless. If we try to stand out and get attention, someone’s going to trip over us.

I think that’s about as far as I can take that analogy, but you get the point.

Happy Friday, Beloved

And in the church God has appointed  (1 Corinthians 12:28).

Before we get into the list of what God has appointed folks to do, I just want to remind us…

God has appointed.

It isn’t you who decides your role, Beloved, just as it isn’t you who plants the gifts.

God is in charge of those decisions.

I’m not advocating a passive faith. I believe we are called to take hold of the Kingdom of God with both hands and work out spiritual butts off for God’s glory.

But

at the end of the day, remember that it is God who gives the gift

and the call

and the strength

and the Spirit to make it all happen.

Breathe deep, Beloved, and do what He has given you to do today.

No more, no less

Happy Wednesday.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Some things in the Kingdom of God we have to wait for.

The end of sin

The end of death

That perfected body I keep not seeing in the mirror

But

Now we are the body of Christ.

Now 

Not tomorrow, not next week, but now.

The body may be a little bruised, a tad arthritic, may even be balding and nearsighted. As we await our own perfected bodies, so we await the perfected Church.

But we are part of the body of Christ now. 

We are needed now.

So, in the words of the song,

Rise up, oh Church of God

Have done with lesser things

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of Kings.

Now

Happy Friday, Beloved