Love Endures

You know those people you just feel called to? You sense there’s a special bond there, and maybe you can’t even explain it, but it just is? Maybe they don’t feel it in return, but for you, you know you would do anything for them. I’ve had a few people like that in my life, and they have been the biggest sources of enjoyment as well as the largest challenges. I’ve learned the most from my relationships with them, usually (honestly) when they offend or hurt me and I have to take it to the Lord. It’s amazing what He reveals to me when I am absolutely annoyed with someone I really love. I am one of those people who analyze everything, especially anything having to do with relationships, doesn’t matter the kind of relationship, and He uses those people and those situations to speak truth to my heart.

What the Lord has been talking to me about recently is Proverbs 17:17 and 1 Corinthians 13. The wisdom of Solomon: “A friend loves at all times…” and the famous “Love is…” passage in Paul’s epistle. Ok, so if my desire is to be a good friend, which really is my heart’s cry in every relationship, then I am called to love at all times. But what does that look like? It looks like 1 Corinthians 13:4-7…it is suffering long (and sometimes I feel like I am suffering for a long time…). It is being kind. It is not being envious. It is refusing to boast , to be rude, to be self-seeking, to provoke, to think evil, to rejoice in iniquity. It is bearing/carrying all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. For me, it’s the last one that really convicts me recently- enduring all things. At. All. Times.

At all times. At ALL times. How can I possibly endure all things at all times? You know, there are days when a friend will make me so angry, or more often, disappoint me so much, I simply want to drop them. I am just being honest here, but sometimes I get so hurt, everything inside of me says, “Forget you, I’m moving on.” But then the still small voice speaks; that quiet whisper that comes from somewhere deep within, it speaks to me. And He reminds me of what He endured for me. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). And usually my super-holy response to Him is, “Really? You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t give up on this person?” And He says no. Because He didn’t give up on me.

So I’ve thought a lot about how I should love my friends, especially lately, and am always reminded of a song by Misty Edwards (link at the bottom) entitled “What Does Love Look Like?” The fruit of her pondering—Love looks like Jesus on the cross, with “arms wide open and a heart exposed.” How convicting. On the cross His arms were physically stretched wide; there was no way He could protect Himself. He was completely vulnerable. Voluntarily completely vulnerable. He allowed it. Why? For the sake of Love. We know that He could have called a legion of angels to rescue Him, but He didn’t. He stayed there and loved, with His arms wide open and His heart exposed. If Jesus loved me this way, I have to love others the same. That means being open, available, vulnerable to others, allowing them access to me, knowing full well they have the ability to hurt me, knowing full well that eventually, they probably will. Love endures all things at all times.

The greatest source of comfort in this is knowing that there is One who endured for me, that for the joy set before Him He embraced the cross. For Me. So I will, in turn, take up my cross, I will share in the fellowship of His sufferings, and I will endure all things. For the sake of love.

 

 

What Does Love Look Like (Misty Edwards)