Chris Little

We went to the store this week and bought school supplies. Do you remember how excited you were as a kid to start school? Well, maybe not start school, but to at least get all that new stuff! The new folders, new crayons, new backpack, and everyone’s favorite…the new lunch box. You went from Star Wars to The A-Team or maybe you’re the kid that went from Strawberry Shortcake to The Smurf’s. What an exciting time – then school started.

Remember that first day of school? You got all your new stuff and you be-bop into the classroom with your backpack full of stuff and your mom has actually made you a cool lunch – for once – and you are ready for a new year. You meet old friends, new friends, get a new seat, new classroom, and a new teacher and you are giddy with excitement. Your teacher says “Hi” and asks about your summer and all is good with the world. Before you know it it is time for recess, then lunch and the day is flying by when all of a sudden the teacher says, “Class, we are going to take a quiz.” Ugh! Agh! What? Is she kidding? It’s really still summer isn’t it? We all love school until it costs us something or we have to work a little bit. We all love school in the beginning, but at the end of the school year we are so ready for it to end.

Does going to church ever feel that way to you? All excited about it and looking forward to it and then…you know, it’s church. You end up checking it off your list of completed tasks for the day/week and move on. Then the next week you gather all your stuff and then…until you are not gathering all your things and going to church? Why is that? What happened?

There are a variety of reasons why, but I have found in my own life that I can narrow it down to one – my pursuit of Jesus. I’ve forgotten the reason I go to church, am a part of the church, actually the church in action. Jesus loves the church. He actually cared so much about the church he called it his bride. What a beautiful picture! Who doesn’t love a wedding? Everyone is excited, dressed up, smells good, and everyone has hope. Hope that this marriage relationship will not just last, but be successful and thrive! Then 5, 10, 15 years down the road…is there still that excitement, does everyone still dress up, smell good, or have hope? Not always. Why? Many times it is distraction from our first love. Careers, education, kids, you name it and it can be a distraction to a marriage relationship.

The same is true for our relationship with Jesus. You met, fell in love and where standing at the altar ready for what was to become…and then you were distracted. You start going to church because you have to go. You are even inconvenienced by your need to go. So, how do you change your church experience? Go on a date with Jesus! When is the last time you intentionally set aside time for Jesus? Try it, you might like it. You might like church again too. You might actually meet some people at church who love Jesus too.

Awwww! The excitement of school supplies…I can’t wait until next school year!

The Gore’s announced their impending divorce last week. Who knows what are the reasons?  I am sure there are a myriad of reasons, excuses and blame to go around. However, the important part is that these two have decided to call it quits. They have been married for 40 years. That is a long time in my book.

Hearing their story made me think about several important parts of the recipe for a successful marriage. The one that kept rising to the top of the list was being intentional about romance. In know, it doesn’t sound very romantic. However, romance is almost always intentional. It takes thought and preparation to do many of the things that are “romantic”.The better you know your spouse, the more romantic you can be. Giving your spouse flowers, chocolate, and a store bought card that expresses your love for your spouse that they don’t know is potentially expected, but not necessarily romantic.

So, what is the most romantic thing you have done for your spouse this month?

God’s love for His people never withers away. It is always spring time. His love for us is like a 24/7, 365 days a year for the rest of our lifetime honeymoon! Who would not sign up for that?
God is love (1 John 4:16). It is his character, his makeup, his nature. If you were to squeeze God like a sponge – love would ooze out. If you were to squeeze some of us – “stuff” other than love would ooze out. How do I know that God is love (1 John 4:7-10)? I know because I have experienced his love. My words are inadequate to describe it – you just have to experience it for yourself.
God’s love motivated him to offer us a gift, a great sacrifice on his part, himself. He literally gave his life so that I could be bought from the marketplace of slavery (Rom. 3:23-25). Real love always leads to sacrifice at some level (1 John 3:16a).
His love and sacrifice has guaranteed us the greatest life. It’s actually a pretty easy life too – love God with every part of your being and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself (Matt. 22:37-39). I got the loving God down most of the time. I am also really good at loving myself – I will go to no amount of expense or inconvenience to show myself love. My neighbor? God, do you know them? Then, it hit me. God is in the same marketplace where he “bought” me ready to buy them too.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) because the people did not understand how much he loved them. Jesus counted the cost (his love persevered) and he still gave his life for mine. God wants me to love others like he has loved me. When was the last time I wept over my neighbors? My kids’ school? The people at the grocery store?
I want to love my neighbor…God, grant me the heart that weeps over them!

Or does it not fail all the time? It seems that way. As I was reading through the 1 Corinthians 13 passage these three words, “Love never fails,” are stuck right in the middle. At first I thought, “Aw! That’s neat.” Then I began to let that settle on me a little bit and thought, “Well, that’s not always true.” I know I’ve failed at loving well and I know others who have experienced the same type of failure. None of us are perfect right? Then I tried to put myself in the shoes of others and it hit me. Anyone who says “Love never fails” is naive and seriously mistaken.
So, how in the world does Paul say “Love never fails?” He says it in full view of the cross. There is no other way to say it and understand it. Love does fail – we have all experienced the pain of love gone bad. Does that make us give up on love? I hope not.
In view of the cross love never fails. Will I ever love anyone like that? Maybe. Can I ever love anyone like that? In view of the cross, yes.

Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. The root idea behind that word angered is “dynamite.” Paul is telling his readers that love is not easily angered because anger, when unleashed, is like dynamite exploding. I have seen some of the devastation that dynamite can do when they use it to blow up buildings. It carries a “whallop!” Anger spewed from our hearts and mouths carries the same type of impact. If a fuse goes off too soon in a stick of dynamite, people get hurt. The same is true with our anger. If our fuse is too short and we explode in anger, people get hurt. Unfortunately, it is usually those we love. May you have an anger that is slow to burn down the fuse. May your fuse burn out before you explode on others.
Paul also speaks of love as an accountant who does not keep record of the wrongs. His account book is weighted in our favor. (Sounds like a good accountant to me!) This word is used to describe God’s transactions with our sin throughout the New Testament. Our sins are as far as the East is from the West…that’s pretty far in case you’re trying to calculate that in your head. In other words, love doesn’t try to keep score and base its love on your worth or merit. If that were the case, none of us would merit God’s love.
So, keep your fuse extra long and your account book closed…and you will begin to love better…

Love is patient. Well, that cuts me out of the “love”. Patience is a virtue that is, and has been, difficult for me to perfect. I want to move on already! It does not help that the culture we live in applauds “instant.” We have instant everything – potatoes, popcorn, news, movies, money. You name it and I bet someone has come up with a way to make it instant! (That reminds me. I LOVE coffee! Which probably does not help with my patience. However, instant coffee is NOT as a good as real brewed coffee. It’s not. Yes, I’ve tried Starbucks’ Via(r) coffee. It’s good for instant, it’s not as good as the brewed. Just a side note…to the young man at Starbucks who tried to convince me it was the same. I appreciate your passion – but, you’re wrong.)
Anyway, a way to assist in being patient is to ask yourself, “Do I have a tendency to be a thermometer or a thermostat?” A thermometer reacts to the temperature. It responds to the heat that is generated and gives a reading accordingly. You know your kid has a temp by checking it with a thermometer. Many times in life, our impatience is due to our living life as a thermometer. We react to the “heat” of life – the situations, circumstances, relationships, etc. – that cause us to get stirred up inside. Then, in a split moment, we spew the stuff inside of us on the “lucky ones” who were present when we couldn’t handle the heat anymore. Unfortunately, too many times it is the ones we love the most – family and friends. They get it because they are “safe”. They can handle the “love” we are giving them.
However, to be a thermostat is a better way to “love” those around us. When we sense life “heating up” we choose to change the temperature. We manipulate the climate by cooling off. How do you cool off? I workout. When I go workout, it relieves stress and allows me to work through life and spew my frustrations on the weights or treadmill. I can tell when I’ve missed a day or two because I start becoming more like a thermometer than a thermostat.
In Proverbs 30: 32-33 it says, “If you have played the fool and exalted yourself, or if you have planned evil, clap your hand over your mouth! For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting a nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” In other words, before you spew on the ones you love…cover your mouth. You can’t get those words back.
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:1,4) This is what it looks like to be a thermostat – to cover your mouth, change the temperature, and then speak words that are life-giving. We all know the phrase “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is a bunch of crock. How do we know that? We know it, because we have been recipients of words from those that love us the most that were not life-giving…and the searing pain they have caused. If only our loved ones had covered their mouth?!?
Love is… being a thermostat more than a thermometer. What’s the temperature at your house?

Have you noticed how funny a word “love” is? I mean, what does “love” really mean? I love burritos, sports, traveling, my family, and God. Surely, the way I love my family and burritos is not the same…is it? Do you remember doing the ‘ol flower deal? You know, taking the a flower and saying, “She loves me, she loves me not” and making sure that the flower petals work out to where “she loves me” in the last one. Ah, the good old days before eharmony.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4 we see Paul describe “love”. The word has a sacrificial tone. If you were to look up the word love in a dictionary and a picture was next to it to depict what love is it would be of Jesus on the cross. Self sacrifice to the extreme.
When I think about sacrificial love several things come to mind. However, I am drawn back to the movie The March of the Penguins and what sacrifices the mother and father penguin made for their egg. They traveled 70 miles in -80 degree weather, do a dance, and then the dad stays behind and protects the egg from the extreme cold and wind. By the time the new egg is hatched, several dads have died in their quest to protect their young and all of them have gone about 2 months without food. Sacrifice! Love!
Love is a verb…love is a sacrifice…love is…