Post from July 16, 2023

“👟 RSD 1174 ✅ Since 1+1+7+4=13, today’s verse is the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians (which has 13 verses). I like the language in The Message translation, so I’m using that one for today’s reflection. I’m in my 4th year of my run streak, so this is in four parts.

1 Corinthians 13:1-2: “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.”

Do you ever wish you were more eloquent? Like, you wish you could just say things, and they would float in the air like poetry or move through your audience with sharp wit? Or, if you aren’t worried about flair, do you ever wish that you could just say things (explain things) without being misunderstood? I think we all want at least one of these (and some people have this talent, which we all admire); being a good communicator probably makes life a little easier and can provide a lot of opportunities (think Ronald Reagan). But, what these two verses tell us is that being good with words isn’t enough.

You know who this made me think of? Mattress Mack. Come on, everybody knows Mattress Mack; he’s the entrepreneur who set up shop in Houston during an economic recession and has been grateful to God (and to Texas where he found this opportunity) ever since. When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, Mattress Mack mobilized all his resources (e.g. his trucks and furniture stores…and some dedicated employees too), and he used said resources to rescue people from flooded areas and to house people with nowhere else to go. Since he already treats his employees well, his stores had kitchens already, restroom facilities too, and, well, a furniture store has a lot of places to sleep. You know, you can’t sell mattresses that people have used, so he probably lost a lot of money by doing this kindness. Weeks later, when businesses had been open for awhile and people were trying to buy replacement furniture for their homes, instead of trying to recoup lost earnings, he made a deal with his customers that season that, if the Astros won the World Series, they’d get refunds (I do not recall if these were partial or full, but nevertheless, there you go). Contrastly, (and this I remember from news reports) there was a large church on the same street (I think a few blocks down) as Mattress Mack’s store which refused to let people enter during the flood; they claimed they would open only after other refugee centers were full. Only after community backlash did they let people enter. This church has a large following and 1000s of members (some famous people too), but this is the only thing I remember about this church. Showing love requires showing love even when it isn’t the easiest thing to do; the King James Version (as well as others), uses the word “charity” in these verses instead of “love.” This isn’t a mistranslation: from Google/Oxford one of the definitions of charity is “love of humankind, typically in a Christian context.” Mattress Mack has repeated this “shelter at the furniture store” action amidst several other natural disasters since 2017. I don’t think Mattress Mack is an author, or some great orator, and he has a sweet, folksy cadence to his language—just friendly and honest. But, one language where this man excels: love, and he speaks it “with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy.”

1 Corinthians 13:3-7: “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.”

How’s your faith? You really don’t have to answer aloud: every person’s faith is between them and God. And, if we’re all being honest, only one of those parties really knows the answer anyway (whispers hint: it’s not you). I’m don’t know how we’re supposed to know for sure anyway, but, I guess that’s one of the things about faith—you’re sure without it being in front of you. Hebrews 11:1 gives us a solid definition of faith; I’m using the sweet, familiar language of The Message, so this groups Hebrews 11:1 and part of 11:2. “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” See, when I was reading this translation of 1 Corinthians 13, the part that stuck out to me was that love “trusts God always.” That idea is certainly present in the other translations, but it just stuck out more in this one. It’s like when you’re in high school and the teacher is explaining something…let’s call it Calculus…and you’re not getting it. Yeah, maybe you’re not all the way paying attention or maybe you’ve gotten a little too much homework cough help cough off the group chat lately or maybe the teacher just sounds like every adult in “Charlie Brown” when she’s trying to explain u-substitutions. You’re totally not getting it, then the teacher explains it a different way and one of your friends expands on it during the discussion. “OHHHHH!!!” Suddenly, it makes more sense. Maybe not perfect sense, but you’re probably going to do the homework without the group chat tonight. It’s been the same Calculus the whole time, but hearing it come at you differently just makes it stick somehow. Reading the Bible has the same effect, and, come to think of it: so does faith. Life is constantly affording us opportunities to grow in our faith. Sometimes it’s wonderful, and sometimes it’s frustrating—I mean, the faith you receive is always wonderful…what I’m saying is: building faith doesn’t always feel good while you’re doing it. We go through these things in life, unsure of our future and how it will turn out, but we cling to our faith and trust in God, try to do “the next right thing” (Frozen 2), and move forward. What gets exceptionally frustrating is when you’ve seen a situation like this before: it’s the same fight, just different packaging. And, you frustratedly throw your arms up and go, “Well, hopefully the Lord gets me through this time like He did—OHHHHHHH!” God doesn’t change, but our depth in knowing Him does. He’s always the same God, and He gives us chance after chance to learn about Him and, in turn, learn about ourselves as well. He knows us better than we do because He created us, and God wants us to learn who we are, who we’re meant to be. How can we become the best versions of ourselves without this information and the skills earned while learning it? 1 John 4:16 tells us that, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” So, all of these things we’re trying to learn about love is really intertwining us with God’s plan for all of us, and He’s infinitely patient and forgiving when we mess up and helps us to do better next time. “Love never gives up”, regarding us, means, “God never gives up.” God always comes through, and He’s always trying to show us the way, just like (not “just like” as in equal, just an example) our teachers were trying to explain history, math, English, home ec (without us setting something on fire), chemistry (without us setting something on fire) to us, but sometimes it just doesn’t stick (hey, at least that spill in 10th grade chemistry was only vinegar). It’s like we just have trouble “getting it.” And then one day, everything suddenly makes more sense—“THAT’S what He was trying to tell me.” Maybe not perfect sense, but definitely something that makes us feel like we can try the homework without the group chat.

1 Corinthians 13:8-12: “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!”

Did you ever take freshman philosophy? Or, have you seen the first “Matrix” movie? Both places is where you’ll find Plato’s (the philosopher, not the clay) “Allegory of the Cave.” Here’s the gist (from a non-expert in philosophy). Basically, these people are trapped in a cave with a fire behind them (don’t worry, not too close, and it doesn’t spread), so they can only see the outside world through shadows from the fire casted on the cave wall, so they think that’s how things are. That’s their reality. One day, somebody escapes, sees the fire for the first time, can’t stand it, sees the sun, can’t stand it, wants to go back to the cave, but then comes to terms with the fact that what he thought was reality was only shadows of reality, and his eyes adjust to the light. The problem the guy faces next is that the other people he tries to help escape the cave resist because all they noticed is that he doesn’t see as well in the dark anymore, and they do not believe there’s a whole, better world out there. Sometimes we get so used to seeing how things are and not what they could be. Or, we see more of the unfavorable of life because that seems to be what’s in front of us. We become only able to see in the dark. See, our vision isn’t ever clear on Earth. The only way we can begin to see things as they should be or to see the good things amongst the bad is to try to consider how God is working within these things. Yes, Plato’s story is a secular example, but it still helps us with some perspective. The point St. Paul is making to the people of Corinth about the infant is a similar argument. Ever play “peek-a-boo” with a baby? When you cover your face, the baby doesn’t know you’re still there (unless you talk or something). Seriously, the kid things you’ve disappeared and reappeared with every exclamation of “peek-a-boo!” The kid basically thinks you’re a wizard. But, we all grow up a tad and know it’s really Mom or Dad behind the blanket. Well, we are all still babies to God, aren’t we? There are things we can’t see, or things that we can see but don’t know what we’re looking at because we just don’t get it yet. Sometimes in the shadows of the world’s imperfections, we can’t see the sun and aren’t even sure that God is there (unless He talks or something…🙃🤔). Unless He talks or something. God is always there, sending us signs, sending us words, sending us people, talking to us, to help us see things as He does, to help us know that the shadows aren’t real. The more we look to the light God provides instead of the shadows the world casts in front of us, the more clearly we see what God wants us to see.

1 Corinthians 13:13: “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.”

Being loving means doing our best by other people and doing our best to follow what God wants us to do. Being loving means serving, being patient, being gracious, being compassionate, being empathetic, being generous, being forgiving, seeing people, being faithful, being trustworthy, and, well, being a friend. Send a text. Send a letter. Call someone. Volunteer, even if it’s for something small. Tell your coworker, “Hey, you’re doing a great job.” See things that need to be done, and do them, even if they seem insignificant. Ask your friend, “Have you eaten?” Say to someone, “You look awesome today.” Sit next to a friend or coworker. Pray for someone. Hold the door open for the person behind you. Return your shopping cart. Cut a friend some slack in an argument. Let your significant other have the remote or the last slice of pizza. Lighten a load for someone. That’s a lot of things, but that’s the goal. All we have to do is keep giving this “being loving” thing a try, give it our best. This humanity thing is worth the effort; God tells us how much we’re all worth it throughout the Bible in a bunch of different ways—you know, so it’ll stick. I’ll leave you with this from “Les Misérables”: “And, remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God.””