One familiar piece of scripture thrown around in today's culture is that of 1 Corinthians 13.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I remember being told at a young age that I would one day know that I had found the right person if I was able to replace "love" in each sentence with his name and still have an accurate message. Scripture continues on:
Love never fails.
This last verse used to baffle me as I looked around wondering why, then, the relationships in my life and in the lives of others all around me were indeed, failing.
I had always thought it strange to personify such a term as abstract as love. As I sat in a local coffee shop just a few weeks back doing a bible study on the book of 1 Corinthians, I came across these few verses again and this time, read it differently.
My dear friends, the truth that we need to realize is that even the happiest of couples cannot apply all of these things to his or her significant other, unconditionally. We are human. We make mistakes. We do fail.
When I reread the passage in the coffee shop this time, I was only able to come up with one very obvious equal for love: God.
It then goes like this:
God is love. God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. God does not dishonor others, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
After this realization, I find it almost idolatrous to try and place any human's name in place of love.
Perhaps the problem with failing relationships stems from this exactly. We focus too much on the flaws of one another. How could a relationship ever have a chance at survival when one's expectations for the other is held to the highest standard, that of God, himself?
So what is the secret to the truly happiest of couples out there? What defines the difference between a failed relationship and a successful one?
A relationship that truly revolves around love also truly revolves around God, because God is love.
Love never fails; God never fails; therefore, a truly God-oriented, love-oriented relationship will, too, never fail.
Pastor Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands made a comment back in February of this year that really stuck with me:
"We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing the imperfect person perfectly."
