1 corinthians

Choosing Love

January 4, 2021 — 1 Comment

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James Baldwin

We can have the power and purpose to impact people and the world, but without love, the barrier between humans remains and the connection that enables change cannot be formed. Love is what breaks down our defenses and armors so that we can actually be close enough to each other to see and know each other. Love translates our unique actions into the unique language our recipients can understand. Love removes fear so that play, innocence and leaps of faith can exist. Love removes the fear of not being enough, the fear of being seen and potentially rejected, the fear of doing it wrong, (as if there’s actually something such as doing it right), the fear that that where we are right now is off. Where you are right now reveals the insecurities, the heartaches and challenges that are building up your mask. With that awareness, you can have agency to choose love instead.

Choose love? That’s choosing your unchangeable worth and uniqueness ordained by God above all else. Choosing love is to see yourself the way God sees you — divine, done on purpose and delightful. Out of this knowing and love, we then break these manmade prisons that keep us separate and weary of each other. In this freedom, we then communicate, prophesy, perform miracles, give generously and endure all waves. Only when we recognize our own freedom and live into it can we seek to free others. That is our greatest calling: to usher others into their wholeness and freedom. To point people back to their Garden of Eden.

If you continue on in 1 Corinthians, you will find what love is. When you are not living in those — patience, kindness, opposite of envy, humility, and so forth — you are not in love. Will you dare to ask yourself why you are not living in and out of love? What mindset of comparison are you in? What unhealthy narratives are you imprisoned by? Where are you not believing God’s divine touch and making of you? Press in. Press through. You will find love right there.

CBG: Judgment

April 30, 2020 — Leave a comment

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

My blood boils. The intolerance. The judgment. The contradictions in this compared to Paul’s previous statement about not judging. I keep reading the verses to understand. I read it again, through the “lenses of a good compassionate God.” I read the whole passage — okay, this was in the context of Paul addressing a man sleeping with his stepmom. Okay, okay? This passage still pisses me off. What about that plank in your own eye, Paul?! Church people?!

Can I toss this passage away? Why was it included? Because a set of old white men decided what should be the canon?! Why was this included? What does it reveal about Paul? About us? About God?

Look out: Paul was on the far, far other side before Jesus. He was a proud, angry, over-educated man of society. I wonder if he still carries those traits into his new self. I wonder if his “passion” and once-again certainty makes him say things without thinking about the emotional impact of others. I wonder if he’s so desperate for people to know a transformative Jesus that he himself is impatient when he doesn’t see how others aren’t already on the same page as him. Paul is flawed. Paul is imperfect. Paul can be wrong.

Look in: …name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — Christian, you are that brother. How quick we are to point to that person whether it’s in pity or in disgust. How quick we are to judge and dissociate. Are we cutting others out to protect our image and flow? Or is knowledge of another’s behavior information for us to tailor our acts of grace and patience for them? Is knowledge of another’s behavior fuel for us to take personal responsibility to be less greedy, less manipulative, more careful with our words and more focused on God’s call on us?

Look up, in & out: God can handle our questions and our doubts. God doesn’t fit in human wisdom. God’s grace and compassion are boundless. God warns to draw in. God love to change. God shifts our behavior, our thoughts, our whole beings.

Prayer: God help us move from anger to action. God remove the parts of us that want to be tribal. God help us work through uncomfortable relationships.

Character: Who have you been judging? What does your judgment reveal about you?

Grace: Where do you feel not enough for God and for others? How are those exact places your unique power for the community?

CBG: Wisdom

April 29, 2020 — Leave a comment

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of god. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord also as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

One annoying thing I experience in Christian culture is the language we use. There is nothing more irritating to my ears than Christian-ese, the terms and the tone we employ to explain the spiritual plane. I fight hard against this by concrete examples. I may be tempted to say God is my provider, has never forsaken me and instead will say well for the last…forever of my life, I have always had food and shelter. Or instead of the hope of Christ keeps me going, I’ll say, I know evil and death are not the end of the story; I don’t believe that and I know that in my core. Even that smells slightly Christian-ese. (Cringe.) I can’t speak for others, as much I want to generalize my own experiences to the general J.C. community, that sometimes I drop Christian-ese because it’s a means of protection. It’s a bubble around what’s tender and precious work in my insides, yet nonetheless a bubble others can nod and say AMEN to. And in those moments, when I am approached with a gentle, patient and safe curiosity, the bubble can pop.

However, however, there are times when our explanations full of hearty evidence fall short. It’s this feeling you can’t fully put into words. It’s this depth of peace that feels fraught to box up for another. It’s this immovable knowing that feels precious reserved for me and God. The wisdom and the strength of God are often unexplainable in humans terms. It’s a relationship that is so core and so unfathomable that we can merely attempt to describe in part by our inability to describe it fully. It’s that wave of the sacrificial love on Good Friday, the utter pain of Holy Saturday and the speechless victory of Easter Sunday. It’s those moments when I feel the most faith and certainty about God. It’s also in those moments when I wish more than anything that those around me can feel it too. How much I long for everyone to know and experience the love of Christ. May we all “understand” and “experience”, without boundaries that plane of holy existence. This is the power of faith that the Spirit of God is indeed at work. Oh no…Christian-ese…

Prayer: Ask God for the wisdom, hope and love you cannot fully explain.

Character: What do each of our fears need to experience peace?

Grace: Where have you seen provision that is beyond what you thought was possible?

CBG: 26

April 15, 2020 — Leave a comment

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Lover never ends.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

This passage is so beautiful and so damn convicting. Who can love in this manner? It seems impossible. Love in this manner demands a constant need for God, for God’s forgiveness, help and presence. Is it not this that reminds us that without Jesus’ hope and redemption, we are unable to fully love.

Love softens the corners. Love is quiet strength. Love is a breath. Love responds rather than reacts. Love is physical and mental and spiritual and emotional. Love is not finite. While we think much about how we can love others — keep that going, we need that — can we extend this kind of impossible love to ourselves?

Can we be patient and kind with ourselves? Can we not compare ourselves with what we think we should be? Can we withhold judgment on our bodies that are doing its best? Can we listen to the whispers of the gut and intuition that are guided by the Spirit, instead of running with the timeline of the world? Can we rest when our body and mind and heart say they are tired? We are imperfect in our self-love and self-compassion, and again, come back to Jesus and how much he loves you. He fills in the gap.

Prayer: God show me how to love instead of prove. God show me how to love without borders while honoring my boundaries. God remove the limits of love. Grow our capacity to receive and to give.

Creative: Love your body — dance? food? move?

Brave: Where do you need to forgive yourself?

Generous: To whom have you given so sacrificially yet maybe haven’t loved without expectation…? What does it look like to shift?