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 By Rob Des Cotes
[other pieces By Rob Des Cotes]
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. 1Cor. 13:4-6
The overall gist of Paul's famous list of attributes is clear, love is a pretty complex subject. Don't try and reduce it to just one thing, especially not to its more extreme expressions. When we think, for instance, of our love for God it's easy to picture ourselves worshipping the Lord with our hands raised (or not), our hearts pouring out affection, and our mouths singing praises. This is one overt expression of love, but it certainly isn't the most common one. Nor is it something that could be sustained for very long without soon becoming wearisome for both parties. Love is much more subtle than that.
Love nuances our many responses to life. It shades how we react to others, how we interpret and respond to them. It directs our movements. It holds us back at times, and moves us forward at other times.
Love is the desire to make whatever changes are needed in ourselves in order to remain close to someone. It's the corrective that we welcome in ourselves, for the sake of a more fitting relationship.
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Love expresses itself not only as something offered, but mostly in how we receive the other person. It is the choice we make to let a person enter our lives, and stay there. It's what closes the doors to rejection.
Love gently tempers whatever excess it meets. It creates space and removes barriers by simply not entertaining anything that might deny it the right to receive the other person.
Love is the preferred option to bear discomfort for the sake of another. It is what we will willingly inconvenience ourselves for; what we will put up with; what we will ignore or overlook; and what we will take on at the expense of our own preferences.
Love is equilibrium. It is the ballast by which all other behaviours are adjusted. Though it often gets shaken out of its stability, love instills hope that life will always return to its original shape.
Love is all this, and many things more. It is important that we learn to recognize and celebrate its subtle forms as well as its more overt expressions.
..it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1Cor. 13:7-8
August 7/2008
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