A loving reminder to myself
I Corinthians 13
This passage was read at a banquet I attended last evening. It struck me that, as well-known and well-loved as it is, it is also one of the hardest to keep in practice. For me anyway (I’ll speak for myself :-) ).
This is the part that got me, especially as I reflect on my blogging:
Ouch.
Not that I know all mysteries and all knowledge, good heavens, but I have always been a contemplative observer and seeker of understanding. It's been my history to come up with different understandings of things than most of the people around me. I contemplate in a holistic way, i.e., try to bring together what I can both sense and intuit and then articulate it, both for myself and others. This blog is one of the most recent endeavors in that regard.
But, alas, it is too easy for me to fixate on this effort and to forget why, ultimately, I ought to do it. In writing, especially. In person, I often refrain from saying what I could out of caution. I sense that the timing isn’t right, or I doubt my ability to put something across in a way that would edify or be taken well, therefore I keep quiet. On a blog, however, a computer is the interface. Besides, it seems that most of those who participate on blogs are those who actually enjoy hashing out ideas and thoughts -- which makes it a better venue for expressing them!
But sometimes I forget to think beyond the actual thoughts and ideas being expressed, by treating them in the abstract and not as statements that have meaning to those who make them. I deeply regret this!
Perhaps my confession will be of edification to others besides me :-)
This passage was read at a banquet I attended last evening. It struck me that, as well-known and well-loved as it is, it is also one of the hardest to keep in practice. For me anyway (I’ll speak for myself :-) ).
This is the part that got me, especially as I reflect on my blogging:
If I have the gift of prophecy (speaking God’s truth), and know all mysteries and all knowledge...but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Ouch.
Not that I know all mysteries and all knowledge, good heavens, but I have always been a contemplative observer and seeker of understanding. It's been my history to come up with different understandings of things than most of the people around me. I contemplate in a holistic way, i.e., try to bring together what I can both sense and intuit and then articulate it, both for myself and others. This blog is one of the most recent endeavors in that regard.
But, alas, it is too easy for me to fixate on this effort and to forget why, ultimately, I ought to do it. In writing, especially. In person, I often refrain from saying what I could out of caution. I sense that the timing isn’t right, or I doubt my ability to put something across in a way that would edify or be taken well, therefore I keep quiet. On a blog, however, a computer is the interface. Besides, it seems that most of those who participate on blogs are those who actually enjoy hashing out ideas and thoughts -- which makes it a better venue for expressing them!
But sometimes I forget to think beyond the actual thoughts and ideas being expressed, by treating them in the abstract and not as statements that have meaning to those who make them. I deeply regret this!
Perhaps my confession will be of edification to others besides me :-)
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
For we know in part, and we prophecy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
...For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.
But now abide faith, hope, love, these three: but the greatest of these is love.
posted by Bonnie at
12:31 PM
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