Live Love

Love is definitely in the air this week... I heard on the news, as I shared Sunday, that 54% of women will break up with their sweetheart if they do not get a gift on Valentine's Day. I remember when Lori and I were dating in high school spending a lot of money for a 17-year old kid on a dozen roses. I had them delivered to school hoping that she would get them during class; unfortunately, lots of other guys had the same idea, so all the roses were delivered to the school library to be picked up after school, and to wilt... It looked like a floral store in there that afternoon. I remember thinking, "not sure this was really worth $30." But, at least Lori didn't break up with me! Actually, she wouldn't have done that anyway... after all, I owed her $30.

In our current sermon series, Live Love, we are learning what love really looks like... and how to keep relationships from breaking up! We are unpacking a very familiar passage of scripture, 1 Corinthians 13. This past week, we learned that "love is patient." (1 Cor 13:4a). In the original language of the text, "patience" means "long to suffer." That doesn't sound very inspiring, but it is the first description given for love in this text. Why? Maybe because we are so quick to give up on people. Agape (love) is an unconditional, selfless kind of love. It would make sense that an essential ingredient for love is a willingness to hang in there, to not give up, to "bear with". So how are you doing with that at home, in your marriage, at work, at school?... No doubt we all have work to do in this area, but it is a key ingredient to living love. (For more, listen to the sermon from Sunday online.)