Love Is Everything…..

We begin a new series this Sunday and I'm pretty pumped up about it. It will be based in 1 Corinthians 13, the 'Love Chapter".

One of the perils of teaching and preaching, as I'm sure many of you preachers/teachers already know, is that God always, somehow manages to teach the teacher before the teacher can teach. I've studies this chapter for a long time and have been looking forward to sharing it but was not totally ready for how God would get me ready to preach through it.

The word for 'love' in this chapter, as it is for any mention of godly love in the New Testament, is 'agape'. The writers of the NT had to go looking for a word to adequately describe what they were trying to convey. There were three commonly used words for 'love' (more on that this Sunday) but none of them were descriptive of the notion of the love that emanates from God. They found 'agape', a little used Greek word translated from an ancient Hebrew word that described, as best I can state it in this short note, a love that was totally based in the lover with no dependence on or merit being found in the beloved. A love that flowed freely from the lover just because the lover could love and for no other reason. Did God set that whole concept up in advance or what?

All this came home late this week as I visited my Mother in Ohio. Mom was in rare form from the moment I got there, insisting that she go home immediately. After conferring with the Doctors and hearing that Mom was not thinking clearly enough to take care of herself, a notion borne out in talking to her for anything more than a few minutes, we all agreed that Mom could come home to Virginia with Kelly and me if we agreed to provide 24 hour supervision for her. The Doctors were very explicit in what our legal responsibility was and were unwilling to discharge her otherwise.

Mom was not happy with any of this and proceeded to rant in anger and disappointment. By Wednesday evening, she reluctantly agreed to come to Virginia but wanted to, "…stop by my apartment for a few things before we go." I knew she was mad and I knew she had no intention of ever leaving her apartment if she was able to get there. When I left her Monday night, she was not talking to me.

Thursday morning, I was paying her bills and doing her banking. All I could think was, "I'm just going to leave for Warrenton. Visiting is too hard on her and pretty hard on me as well. Then I remembered a theme that ran through the T4G conference Kelly and I attended last month, "Live the Gospel!"

How do you live the Gospel? You apply its' teachings to your daily life. How did that look in Youngstown this morning?

I knew that visiting Mom this morning would be painful and I wanted to avoid it. I thought, "Jesus knew the cross would be painful and he wanted to avoid it." In the final analysis, He went to the cross regardless of any concern for His own pain. Why?.....To honor His Father. I realized that any pain I might suffer in my Mom's room was pretty insignificant to the pain He suffered on the cross. I want desperately to honor God in how I relate to my Mom but I was trying to avoid doing the only thing that would give Him that honor. I was in self-preservation mode and doing everything I could to justify my leaving for Warrenton.

I stopped and prayed.

I walked into the room.

It was far worse than ever before. When Mom heard we had to wait until Tuesday, she was mildly upset. But when she heard we would not stop by the apartment, it was like an inner fury was unleashed. She struck out by saying some pretty awful things and when that didn't work, she began to cut deeper.

It was slightly odd. I just sat there thinking, "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be. My battle is not of flesh and blood, not with this scared and frail woman, it is of principalities and powers. It is with 'spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places'. I can't go there and fight so I have no alternative other than to allow the Lord to fight for me and He says the victory is already His." My job was to reflect God's 'agape' love to her and let Him take care of the rest. Humbled, all I could say was, "I Iove you, Mom."

Ultimately, I had to leave. Mom was getting herself pretty worked up. I told her she could think about what she wanted to do and I would call tomorrow. She told me she never had any intention of coming to Virginia and was going to call the police to come and get her out of there.

God is good. His lessons are painful at times, but they are always designed to draw us closer to Him….make us more like Him. I am so thankful He is patient and merciful with me. It's not easy when you get a peek at what a wretched person you can be. Even then, it can be a blessing. When it happens, it's always an opportunity to cast yourself before the Lord and cry out, "I can't do this myself…I need You!"

I still don't know if Mom will come to Warrenton. But, determined to love her even though she wasn't acting very lovable at the moment, as I began to leave the room, I turned and said, "Mom, when I was little you used to say to me, 'You don't know how much I love you…..now I understand. Now I get that and it's OK. Can I give you a kiss before I leave?" "NO! I don't want you near me!" she shouted, in so many words. But then she looked up at me and whispered, "I suppose one kiss…….would be all right."

As I walked out, I could hear her whisper, "I love you…..more than you know."…..from God's lips to my ear…a little gift from Mom and Him at the same time.

Amen!