The Greatest of These Is Love

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

This line from, perhaps, one of the best loved and read passages in scriptures speaks of an incredible force. Though 1 Corinthians 13 is read at many weddings, the love of which it speaks is not romantic love or friendship love but selfless, sacrificial love. It is the kind of love that God has for you and me, and the kind of love we aspire to have for humanity.

About this love the Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard De Chardin wrote: Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tide and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love.

Imagine, no one has seen wind but we do see its effects. We see how it powers windmills that convert the wind to energy. We don't see gravity, but we see its effects. Though we see the waves of water and the tide as it goes in and out, we don't see all that creates them. In a sense we don't see love in a person's heart, but sure can see its effects.

We are moving toward harnessing more and more of these natural inexhaustible energies for good. Why can we not do the same with this sacrificial love of which Paul wrote and Jesus spoke? We can and we have-though we struggle to sustain it. I've seen the energy of this love harnessed and turned loose to heal another person broken by life's tragedies. I've seen the energy of this love harnessed and loosed to reconcile people at odds with a wrong decision or misspoken word. I've seen the energy of this love harnessed and loosed when a couple whose marriage has been strained by broken faith work to bring it back together.

All it takes is a decision of the mind and hearts to unleash the power of God's Spirit in our souls and make possible meeting the very challenge we face in our life today. The beauty of it is that it can all begin with a simple prayer.

Prayer
God of love, reign in my heart this day. Enable me to face with the power of your sacrificial love the barriers that may separate me from another. Enable me by the power of your sacrificial love to let go of the hurts I have been carrying for too long. Unleash in me that same power to love which was in Christ Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana