"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends."

                                        1 Corinthians 13:4 - 8a            NRSV

 

I have committed a terrible error.  I stood before a congregation and asked them what they saw as their future.  In the quiet that followed the group gathered reflected on years of dreams, hopes, children, history, and all other types of memories ignited by this one question.  What power that moment held.

 

As we discussed their fears, anxieties, limitations and concerns I saw a light begin to glow in the eyes of some.  It took some encouragement, some challenge, and a touch of "what if" to help the glow become brighter. 

 

Love was needed.  Not the familial type of love but the supporting, encouraging type of love.  The same type of love God has shared with me in my moments of doubt and despair.  The same love available to me when I take the moment to look beyond the walls I've built about myself.  We all need to experience this love that surpasses all understanding.  It was "love" that turned my error into a time of hope and new life.

 

Prayer:    "Lord, we don't always understand the full depth of your love.  We do know that as we experience it great and wonderful things begin to happen.  May we be carriers of this joy into the lives of others.  Amen"

 

This week bring someone you know to a new understanding of love as shared in a moment of faith.