Okay, so I'm switching things up a bit this week. To be perfectly honest, I'm even more behind on the BRP. :( I hope to catch up soon. On a more positive note, I was cleaning out my closet this weekend (still! ahh!), and I came across this packet I received when I graduated high school from the Baccalaureate ceremony. Basically, it's this devotional-esque type thing for going to college. I pretty much just ignored it when it was given to me, but I did keep it, and as I was looking at it, I thought I'd go through it. So basically, there's a CD and then a bible passage that you're supposed to read along with listening to a specific song. So here goes:
Today's subject was intimacy, about how we might be "connected" to many people through cell phones, internet, etc., but that we need to have close personal relationships too, especially with God. The song I listened to is "I'm for you" by TobyMac, and I read 1 Corinthians 13. I know this passage fairly well, but it's always good to have a reminder and think about things in new ways. The part of this passage I always paid the most attention to was the most "famous" part, v. 4-7: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
What really struck me today, though were verses 8-10: 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
This passage really spoke to me because no matter what gifts we have, or what good works we perform, there is no way they can be complete or perfect without love. Without love, those gifts and works really mean nothing. We would be nothing without God's love, and we should show that kind of love to others. This kind of reminds me of what you were saying in your post yesterday, Mar - sometimes it seems so difficult to love other people like this, and the more we rationalize our way out of it, the easier it becomes to ignore the situation and distance ourselves from those in need.
Also, the song I mentioned earlier is really good. I would suggest everyone check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iu6PQMOIzU :) The lyrics are really thought-provoking, especially:
Everyone of us has stumbledSo, I hope you guys enjoy that. As for an update, things are actually pretty boring around here. I've basically just been sleeping, reading, watching movies, hanging out with my friends, and enjoying the fantastic weather we've been having lately. I'm really trying to enjoy every day that I have up here before I start classes in June because it's a really rare opportunity for me to have an extended amount of time at home without working. I was really bored and kind of unhappy at first, but now I'm thinking this is kind of fantastic. haha. Anyway, that's all I've really been up to.
Everybody's humbled
We hit the ground and our lives crumble
Whatever I gotta be
I'll be for you
...
You've always been for me
So I will be for you
That's just what it means to love
I hope you guys are doing well. I miss you all like crazy!!!!
<3 <3 <3,
Shelby
"I was really bored and kind of unhappy at first, but now I'm thinking this is kind of fantastic." That is a good quote.
ReplyDeleteI am reading Strength to Love by MLK right now, and he was talking exactly about what you are saying - that good works are not complete without love:
"The hardhearted person lacks the capacity for genuine compassion... He gives dollars to a worthwhile charity, but he gives not of his spirit."
"Money devoid of love is like salt devoid of savor, good for nothing except to be trodden under the foot of men. True neighborliness requires personal concern. The Samaritan used his hands to bind up the wounds of the robbed man's body, and he also released an overflowing love to bind up the wounds of his broken spirit."
This book is really good you guys.