A YEAR OF HARD LESSONS

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Over the past year, this passage has been the focus of my growth and obedience to the Lord. He gave me this passage early on in 2006 to ponder, to study and put into action. This passage has challenged me to give unselfishly and to give everything the Lord has blessed Steve and me with back to Him to bring glory to HIS name. It has been a hard year of learning how to love people in such a way that you do it strictly out of love for them as a child of God and never expect anything in return. It has been a lesson of learning to trust the Lord that He knows what he is doing and continue to love people the way He has instructed me to no matter what the outcome is.

Sending the Lugo’s off to Hawaii yesterday was extremely difficult and demonstrating this kind of love to them over the past 10 years and especially over the past year has really helped me to understand this passage. However, today, the day after they left, has been a day of continued spiritual learning. I am so emotionally exhausted that I went to bed at 7 pm last night and did not wake up until 8:15am this morning. I really needed the Lord this morning, so I sat down for a quiet time and I was taken immediately back to 1 Corinthians 13 and the Lord revealed a new lesson for me, one I had skimmed over and never thought much about up to now. In verse 13 it says “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” I was expecting Him to have a gentle word for me to ease me through today which has been very hard so far, but there was no such luck. He spoke to me through verse 13 by asking me the question “what is your hope in regards to the Lugo’s going to Hawaii?”. As I thought this through I realized that I have faith that the Lord has called them to Hawaii and I have loved them in all the ways this passage commands, but what IS my hope? I was immediately uncomfortable and knew what the answer was, but He confirmed it when I called Candace to finalize the plans for Maddie’s trip. Once Candace and I were done she quickly handed the phone off to Joseph and my “unconscious hope” was revealed. Deep down in the pit of my soul I wanted Joseph to sound sad when he talked to me, but he wasn’t. He was happy and upbeat. I wanted to hear him say they were having a hard time like I was today, but they weren’t. I even heard everybody laughing in the background. The kids were fine. Ashley was having a blast with Parker, John was in a great mood and Kara was perfectly fine. They had not even been there a full day and Joseph already has a lead on where to plug in with youth in Hawaii and minister with them. Okay, reality check: They will be fine and happy in Hawaii, without me and without Vacaville! That was very hard to hear today.

I can’t say I TRULY love the Lugo’s or the McDaniel’s if deep down I want to hear them say they are miserable and want to come back. Verse 7 says “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” My “hope” for all of them needs to shift from a self-centered hope of return (even if it is years down the road) to a “hope” of their continued obedience to God and for me to do what is right as a friend to encourage them when the days of doubt attack them, to assure them of my love and friendship on the days they feel alone and abandoned and even if they reach a point and say “did I make a mistake?”, I need to say in all truthfulness that though I miss them terribly, they are where they need to be for this time and this season. Only then will the lesson on TRUE love spoken in 1 Corinthians 13 be realized in my life. Hard lesson for a hard day!