Dear Faith Family,
It's been one of those weeks for the Pace family! While nothing catastrophic has occurred, few things have been easy, and even less has gone to plan. And it's only Wednesday!
When we prayed our Collective Prayer of commitment last week, giving ourselves over to the will and way of our Father in the week ahead, I certainly wouldn't have chosen the messy details of the week's particulars. And based on several conversations, I know I am not the only one who would have chosen differently! That is, if there really was a choice in the details, but there wasn't.
The truth is, in a committed life of joy, the messy particulars of giving ourselves away to a cause (a kingdom) and a calling (a vocation) are often not a matter of choice. In truth, the committed life is actually lived in the messy details of life with others in membership, in belonging to others, and others belonging to us. In truth, our belonging often has little to do with choice. Whether by birth or by proximity, (re)birth or divine orchestration, "each of us is [both] made by...[and] made as-a set of unique associations with unique persons, places, and things."
The apostle Paul labels our God-fashioned, Spirit-animated life with Him and others a membership:
"we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Rom. 12:5)
In another letter, Paul would say that we don't get to choose who is in or out, needed or not needed in this membership, not even for ourselves (1 Cor. 12:14-26). Paul said all are needed, all of us in our varied "set-apartness," our God-crafted grace endowments, services, and energizing operations come together for "the common good," His good for all manifesting through our commitment to His will and way in the messy particulars of each other's lives (1 Cor. 12:4-7). When any member is cut off, lost, or not living into the truth of who and whose they are, the whole of the membership suffers (1 Cor. 12:26).
While it would be easy--at least I am prone to think--to live committed to cause and calling in isolation, in a non-interdependent web of associations, the truth is, the very thing I am set apart for is what I am set apart into. In light of this truth, Paul says the "more excellent way" of living together is not merely to desire to be who we are made to be, but to do so in the messy particulars of love (1 Cor. 12:27-31).
While the common use of 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings may lead us to assume it is reserved for the sacred commitment of marriage, Paul’s insertion of the familiar “The Way of Love” chapter follows his description of the membership and our responsibility for one another; the messy particulars were the cause and our calling manifest.
So, faith family, this week, let's read and meditate on Paul's words below, allowing the Spirit examen us in the particulars of our commitment to Him.
Love you, faith family! God bless.
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1 CORINTHIANS 13 | The Way of Love
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
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.
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 is not its to possess. 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, but takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.
Love creates a covering of protection, a shield from the elements of daily living.
Love is easily and willingly persuaded by faith.
Love actively waits for God's fulfillment.
Love bears bravely and calmly all the ups and downs of life together.
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.
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. 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!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope joyously, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.