Love is...

In the interests of brevity, I have included most of 1 Corinthians 13, though only the bits that have stood out to me tonight (as opposed to other times I have read it!)

1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal….

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ….

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I was thinking of these this evening through a conversation. I generally avoid these particular conversations as much as possible, as I don’t have the words to meet the tirade of anger…against God, the church, Christians.. you name it. And when the other person who is a studied intellect who just ‘knows’, there’s no way out and no ‘come back’ using words that I can find. Definitely not by matching it.

I wonder how love never fails when it’s not met, received and reciprocated, but when it is truly love that is patient, kind, rejoices in truth, protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres….  But in that lies the mystery and the wonder of it all.  And as with people like tonight, love, in all its facets, in whatever form, won’t fail, and will remain after all else has indeed gone.