Smudges and Scratches

Love. There's a pretty good chance I overuse this word.
"I love you."
"I love my mom."
"I love eating vegetables."
"I love Hot Rod."

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul paints the most beautiful picture of real love. Many of us have read this so many times that we don't pay attention to it any more, but I'm going to repeat it any way.

"Love is patient and kind." I'm frequently impatient. I want things when I want them without waiting. It doesn't say that love is kind to cute or sweet people. I find it much easier to be kind to people I readily get along with.

"Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude." Wow. I could give you numerous examples of how I have been jealous, boastful, proud, and rude in the past week alone.

"It does not demand its own way." Often, I don't like working with other people because I feel like they will mess up... and not do things my way.

"It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged." I was irritated with two of the people dearest to me yesterday.

"It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out." In the broad sense of injustice, I   do rejoice when the truth wins out. However, is this true on a personal level? Does this include times when injustice benefits me in my relationships or living situations?

"Love never gives  up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
My sin and shortcomings overwhelm me as I measure myself against this list. As I state all the time, I want to be an example of Christ's love for the world. But, if my behavior doesn't look like his love, I'm portraying an inaccurate image.

"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely."

N. T. Wright states that "The point of 1 Corinthians 13 is that love... is our destiny."

I reflect Christ's light and love, but the mirror of my heart has a few smudges and scratches. "But then..." one day, I will truly know love. And one day, I will truly show love. I look forward to the moment when the glory of God's love, as defined in this passage, effortlessly pours out of me and shines like the sun.