Tag Archives: 1 Corinthians 13:13

Now arriving

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While traveling on a ‘memory maker’ trip last week, we were greeted by this sign in one of the airports.

NOW ARRIVING:
HOPE
DREAMS
FAITH

It was a refreshing greeting and reminded me that wherever we go, our hopes, dreams, and faith (also love) go with us. And I wondered, are these evident when we go about our routine daily travels? Are they ‘carry ons’ or ‘stow away luggage’? Are faith, hope and love generally manifest when we walk into a room? Is our everyday conversation more often characterized by these or by complaining? Do we carry the dreams of who we want to become when we go to the grocery store or pay our bills? Or do we reserve these honorable qualities for more ‘spiritual’ times?

While visiting with my sister, the question came up:
Are we primarily spiritual beings with an earthly body, or are we earthly beings with a spiritual component? How would you answer? On the one hand, the earthly side of us is quite evident. We breathe, laugh, cry, suffer in pain, and experience the wear and tear on our physical bodies. And of course we have ambitions tied to those earthly bodies, desires for certain foods, clothes, shelter, and so much more. We readily feel and experience the effect of both pain and pleasure on our physical bodies, don’t we?

On the other hand, the bible tells us that while we are created both physically and spiritually, our essence and purpose is spiritually and relationship driven. Paul writes that we are aliens and strangers in this land, ambassadors to a foreign country. He further says that this earthly body is like a temporary tent while our spirit is our permanent temple.

If that is the case, why don’t we more often experience the world through our spiritual self? Why don’t we more often see with spiritual focus, hear with spiritual enlightenment, and touch with spiritual compassion? After all, our lives are blessed as are others when we experience life in this manner. Perhaps it is because we lack the regular discipline to consider spiritual living as our default mode. We are often distracted by ‘shiny things’ and the call of worldly things. We get off track dozens of times each day. I confess, sometimes I find myself distracted even while praying! What are we then to do?

Consider what you do when you encounter a road detour. Your choice always is to either focus on the problem or focus on the solution. It doesn’t help to ignore the physical situation but focusing on your hope of finding your way to getting back on track is the solution that sees you through. Isn’t the same true with spiritual living? There is no need to beat ourselves up over life distractions; simply turn our focus back to God and enjoy the reconnection with his presence.

Here is a practical application. Whenever you change environments this week – from one room to the next, from one meeting to the next, from home to work – ask yourself, “Is faith, hope and love arriving with me?”

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith Hope and Love

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Though it was decades ago, I remember it clearly. I was in a hospice room with an acquaintance while he was visiting his dying wife. WHY I was chosen to join him in this intimate setting, I don’t recall, but I clearly remember the very brief conversation, if you could even call it that. He took her hand and said to her, “I want you to know that I have always been faithful to you. I have never cheated on you.” Her eyes remained closed as if to open them required too much effort in her state of suffering. But the hands clasping each other communicated to me more than mere words could impart.

And yet the words seemed as necessary to him as they were surprising to me. And they seemed to come out quite of the blue. If they were a continuation of a previous conversation there was no evidence to it. Rather, it was like the situation I’d seen before where words of love had not been spoken for so long because of embarrassment or discomfort, until the forces of nature could simply not hold them back.

There is something about love and faith that needs to be affirmed both in actions and in spoken word. Oh, it seems we have no problem neglecting them in the routine busyness of life. But these words, and the actions which affirm them, are the relational glue that holds people together. They speak to our great hope that we were loved and that we loved well. And it seems like they are needed to be expressed never so much as in times of despair, when life is threatened or near its end. It is at these times especially that we look to the sum of life and ask what mattered most.

I experienced a number of such moments this past year with my journey through cancer. My mind flooded with so many things I let trip me up throughout the years and so many things I could have done better. But overshadowing all the shortcomings and certainly any claim to “success” were faith, hope and love. In the end, and especially now in the middle of life’s journey, these are what I want to remain. How about you?

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13