But yesterday, God decided to open my eyes to the ways in which my beliefs would be taken and force me to ask the question: What is love?
Is love telling the truth even when you know they can't hear it because you fear that to keep silent would not be loving?
Or is love keeping silent: hearing, listening, hoping and waiting, knowing that its not my job to do anything else?
Yesterday, I was in the midst of multiple conversations where it was explicitly expressed by many of my new friends how much they are completely tolerant of everyone except that they cannot even remotely tolerate anyone who says that they believe their "religion" to be "the way". I kind of smiled to myself because by simply expressing this thinking about their highly held value of tolerance, they make it obsolete by putting qualifications on it. If you are truly tolerant, then you should be tolerant of everything regardless of your view of its personal level of tolerance; and why use the word tolerance, anyway... it sounds so negative... but this is not the point.
The point is that though I am not (or at least strive not to be) the hypocritical, judgmental, religious stiff that has them all upset and offended, I do not think that now is the time to convince them of this... it should be something that they see for themselves. Just because I believe certain things to be true for all people (just as gravity affects all of us), does not mean that I believe I have a right to dictate any aspect of anyone else's life or beliefs.
And as I've been wrestling with these thoughts from the week, the song by Stacie Orrico "Without Love" that basically quotes 1 Corinthians 13, played on shuffle in iTunes. And though it is in the context of the use of spiritual gifts, I believe that it still applies. I went to the passage in my Bible first, and then decided to look it up in the New Living Translation and ended up reading it with tears streaming down my face. Its a nice healthy slap in the face for anyone who holds too tightly to their own knowledge. What an amazing God we serve!
"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. 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. 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.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 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.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
2 comments:
Michal, you are amazing. My cerebral Christian side says "I am happy for Michal that she is struggling and wrestling in search of truth. This is fantastic!" However my heavy heart that has not been reading the Bible or praying is saying "whoop de doo." However, we both know the heart is decietful above all things and desperately wicked.
Michal, this is really awesome that you're wrestling with the definition of Biblical love. So awesome that you're in a place where you know people well enough to be a part of such a group discussion, even if you don't say anythiing.
Love seeks truth but has compassion. You should always have an answer for the hope you have within you. But perhaps that word "answer" precludes a question. Perhaps we aren't meant to lambast our good friends with our beliefs but wait for these same friends to want to know what we believe. It's hard, either way. But I think you're on the right track with your wrestling.
your friend,
--Jihad
saint francis of assisi said, "preach the gospel at all times and when necesary, use words"
michal, i think you are living and loving. continue to listen to the spirit in each sitiuation, some times stay quiet and sometimes start smashing your bible over their heads, just kidding, i mean share with them and god takes care of the rest.
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