Posts Tagged: 1 Corinthians 13:13
“THERE’S HOPE, AND THEN THERE’S HOPE!”
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” (Psalm 42:5, KJV)
“Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues.” (Brother Lawrence. Read more: https://www.christianquotes.info/top-quotes/16-encouraging-quotes-about-hope/#ixzz4wiEMwLpV)
My sponsor, Bob, is good about encouraging me, but at times he also challenges me. For example, part of my report to my sponsor this morning was the following:
Subject: REPORT AND AFFIRMATION
Dear Bob,
“I plan to live in recovery today, without exception I hope!”
AFFIRMATION: Today, by God’s grace, I will an exceptionally 12-step life.
My sponsor replied, “Get rid of the qualifier, ‘I hope’. You cannot give yourself permission to fail. Do or Don’t, there is no try.”
Enjoy your day 😊
However, I e mailed him the following reply:
“Not so sure you’re right on this one. After all, hope is one of the three eternal virtues (1 Corinthians 13: 13).
I think that the crucial question is this: In whom or what am I trusting? If I am trusting in myself or my unaided efforts, my “hope” would be another word for despair.
But if I am hoping in God, that is an entirely different matter.
However, your comment has invited me to ask a very difficult and important question. Is my hope centered in God?
I hope (!!) this clarifies matter. 😊
Warm Regards”
But in a very profound sense, my sponsor is right. I do frequently use hope to give myself an out for failure. And when hope is used in that way, I am setting myself up for failure, and hope is not biblical hope.
“Hope thou in God,” says the psalmist (Psalm 42:5, 11). And God is the One in whom I can hope confidently. God forgives my sins, but God does not make room for those sins. Rather, God makes room for me. And a huge part of that “making room” for me is cleaning out all the moral, relational garbage that I tend to cling to as if it were some sort of treasure.
“When it is a Sad Anniversary”
Today is a sad anniversary for me. Someone I love a great deal took his own life on this day.
He was a good guy in many ways, just confused. And like all survivors of suicide, I tend to blame myself.
However, it is important, even in the sad times (perhaps, most of all during the sad times) to remember the good qualities of someone. This young person was funny, and loving, and wise beyond his years. There are good memories, as well as the huge hole in my heart.
“Love is as strong as death,” says the Song of Songs, chapter 8, verse 6. The Apostle Paul takes it even further. The greatest thing in the world is love, and it will last (1 Corinthians 13:13). In 13:8, Paul says, “Love never fails.”
Really? Even when it seems to have failed completely?
Yes! Even then!
So, I go on loving. Why let the grave stop me? It didn’t stop Jesus!
“My To-Do Lists and God’s Priorities”
Sometimes, I confuse my to-do list with what should be my priorities.
Take this morning, for example. My affirmation to my sponsor (as well as to myself and God) was as follows:
“Today, by God’s grace, I will spread mulch, do some (hopefully) creative writing, and work at Bob Evans. I will do these things because they are fun to do, because they need doing, because they may benefit other people, and because they will glorify God when they are done in the right way with the right attitude.” (Down to Earth Believer, affirmation sent to 12-step sponsor.”)
But then, I turned to a daily retreat sponsored by the Jesuits and Loyola Press, and read the following reflections on 1 Corinthians 13:13, which says “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
“This scripture passage offers us a chance to reflect on our priorities. It tells us that, at the end of the day, it won’t be the school we graduated from, our annual income, or our zip code that matters. Rather, we will be judged by our fidelity to God, our hope in Christ and the power of his Resurrection, and the love that we show ourselves and our neighbor. It’s as simple as that.” (Excerpt from the “3-Minute Retreat” for today, April 27, 2017, http://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/love-lasts-forever-start-retreat.)
This invited me to do a little probing of my to-do list. Here is the question: Do my priorities match up with and reflect God’s priorities for all believers? In other words, am I going to choose to spread mulch in a loving, hopeful, faith-filled way?
This is one of those questions that I can’t always answer, and don’t want to answer. I don’t always like other people’s answers to my questions. I often flat-out detest my own answers.
My answer will not come in the form of this post. It will not come primarily in terms of my feelings or thoughts. My answer will come as I put each shovelful of mulch in the wheel barrow and spread it around our flower beds.
Ultimately, only God can decide how lovingly, how hopefully, how faithfully I mulched the flower beds. But I can at least live with the question.
Postscript: I wrote this blog yesterday, so that I could post it early this morning. I got the mulching pretty well done. I’m going to the chiropractor this morning.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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