Tom writes:

It’s the wedding passage! But don’t let the distant sound of wedding bells fool you - this is about so much more than marriage. It is one of the most inspiring and most challenging mandates for every church, every small group, every household. The passage is full of poetic beauty and yet it is more down to earth than a long-drop toilet at a French service station. Every single descriptor of love is delicious. Oh to be with someone who is patient. Ah, to never be self-seeking. Eee to have someone who protects you and trusts you and perseveres with you. We read these soaring sentences and life seems better - it seems more excellent and exalted. No wonder we read them at our weddings. But then we walk back down the aisle. Then we leave our quiet time and bump into people who do “people-stuff” to us. Our romantic vision of frolicking in a French field is replaced by a long queue and the unmistakable whiff of continental conveniences. This is because love isn’t really poetry - love is a word that rams us into the blokes who are sitting next to us. Love chains us to the moody-looking woman behind us. It was love, not doctrine, that took Jesus to the cross. It was love, not prophecy, that fuelled the resurrection. Love is the mature model of a life lived in God. Love knows that some people have more than us and some people are annoying to us and some people are doing wrong to us but it still stands firm. Love knows that we see in a glass darkly, like viewing a reflection in a muddy puddle on the floor. But it is not phased by that uncertainty. Love never fails.

You know that today you will carry scars from evil. You know that today you will be desperate for some protection from others, for some love from others… and that you probably won’t get it. But don’t let this drive you away from love. Don’t let that make you insular and cynical. Instead choose to love. Choose to never grow weary of love. Spend yourself on building others up. Ask God for gifts that will most help other people. Don’t make excuses for yourself. Don’t think you need to find a new group or that you need to sort yourself out first or that you would in theory but today isn’t a great day... Instead, choose to love. Devote yourself to love. Manifest the magnificence of the Trinity. Live the most excellent way, pursue a life defined by the greatest attribute of our faith and you will begin to smell excellent and exalted in everything you do.

Question for reflection

Can you imagine yourself abounding in love? What would that look like?

1 Corinthians 13 - Monday 3rd June