Limitless Love
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (New Living Translation)
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Like many of you, I’ve read the “Love” scriptures a million times. It has been used several times as the scripture reference for the devotionals Lisa and I have written. However, it wasn’t until my last relationship that I actually got to live it.
Yes, right now my heart is broke and I have no idea how to begin to start over, but I understand how God could love us so much that He would sacrifice His one and only son so that we may have eternal life. Now, I am not at a place where I would sacrifice my one and only daughter for mankind, but I have had my heart stolen by a man I would lay down my life for. I do what it feels like to believe in someone despite what they believe about themselves or what others speak over them. I have learned how to love without any expectations, and how to continue to give/show love when it wasn’t always reciprocated.
Many people didn’t understand the relationship I was in or why I stayed for so long, but many people didn’t understand the man I was with either. In life we watch God bless the dope dealer, the adulterer, the man/woman who deserted us and we wonder why. Maybe it’s because, unlike us, God loves unconditionally. He doesn’t love us based on our behaviors and performance. Maybe it’s because He wants to show us, that He loves us right where we are, even when He wishes we would do better. Think of the mother who keeps bailing her son out of jail, or the girlfriends who keeps going back to the abuser. It’s not always out of stupidity, sometimes it’s because they are able to love them past their faults. Sometimes they stay because they can see the greatness that lies underneath all the junk. God knows us better than we know ourselves and so He is able to love us in spite of our imperfections, short comings, and wrong doings. God loves us through our past, in order to push us into our future.
The Bible says a man can fall 7 times and the Lord will forgive him each time as if it were the first. I don’t think it’s because God doesn’t have the sense to cut them off, I believe it’s because He doesn’t have the Heart. When you really truly fall in love with someone, you don’t know how to stop loving them. You don’t know how to stop needing them and depending on them. You don’t know how to give up on them, even when you want to.
I never understood how people, who become widowers at an early age, never re-marry or date again, but I do now. When you have really let go and given your heart to someone, you feel like no one can fill their shoes or take their place. There is no one better. No one else will be able to touch you like that again, so why waste your time. Once you’ve had steak, spam doesn’t hit the spot anymore. When you really love someone, all limits are removed. There is no road block to great to stop you. If there is a problem you work to find a solution. If there is a disagreement, you agree on a compromise.
God loves us like Corinthians says we ought to love each other. He is patient, He is kind, He doesn’t keep score, He doesn’t hold grudges, He doesn’t act boastful, and He shows us how much we mean to Him with His Word and His actions. If you are blessed with the chance to truly love someone, love them with all you have because that’s all you can do. So today let’s determine in our mind to love without any limits, before God determines in His mind to love us with some.
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