As the Holy Spirit gently speaks to me about who I am and how I live, I find myself thinking about how I deal with people. I think about how I treat people, what I say to them, what I tell others about them, what I allow myself to think about them. As I read God's word, I find a LOT of verses and passages that talk about these issues. Growing up the way I did it would be very easy for me to translate most of what I read as, "This is what you're doing wrong – you're really screwing things up." But again, as I allow the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and process of discovery I realize that what I'm really reading is, "This is the way to do things! Isn't it cool that I gave you directions?" There is, to some extent, conviction. How can I not notice the gaping chasm that separates my imperfect life from that of Christ's? But the conviction is always complete in that it doesn't blame or shame, it just reveals and then, if I let it, it guides me to the place of forgiveness and reconciliation. In this sense, conviction is bittersweet and necessary. Like surgery it hurts, fixes the problem, and then it heals.
So, my latest trip to the surgeon's table has been about love and what it means to love someone. As I re-read the often-referenced Chapter of Love I'm amazed at what stands out this time as opposed to what stood out the last time I read it. I realize, as if for the first time, that the chapter MUST be taken as a whole. In bits and pieces I could argue that if someone loves me they'll put up with anything I do, right? Wrong. That goes against love taking pleasure in truth. If the truth is that my behavior is sinful then the person I love should not "just" put up with it. The issue is context. My new revelations don't mean that the meanings of the words have changed, my circumstances have. I chuckle a little at the fact that I'm amazed how once again, it applies perfectly to this situation and manages to move me deeply. Oh me of little faith.
I absolutely believe that the Bible sets the standard for everything, especially love. After all, this is how LOVE Himself loves me and you. This is how I should love you. It is not how I have loved you as of late, and that breaks my heart - truly, but there is peace in knowing that God has "given me directions!" and that He has forgiven me for "screwing things up."
1 Corinthians 13 – all three versions copied from Biblegateway.com but reformatted for easier reading.
The Message Version
"The Way of Love
1. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
3-7. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10. Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11. When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13. But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."
The New International Version
"Love
1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
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.
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The New American Standard Version
"The Excellence of Love
1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5. does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10. but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Jesus LOVES me and you, every one of us. Pray that I learn how to do the same.
contemplative 
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