SCANDALOUS
June 8th, 2022
LOVE…Doesn’t Brag About One’s Achievements,
Doesn’t Inflate Its Own Importance (v. 13:4)
1 Corinthians 13:8, 13, ‘Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which one day will fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten…Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope and love—yet love surpasses them all. So, above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.’ (TPT)
Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head.
I am discombobulated by arrogant and prideful people. If someone is cocky, I will run in the opposite direction from any form of acquaintance or relationship. A person who is sold out to themselves is not typically running around in my circle. That being said, can you imagine the shock I uncovered when I found how self-centered I really was?!
For many years, I was a successful businesswoman. I was in a very limited niche and the field was quite small, and so I never realized it was quite important to me to be so noticed and revered by others, which fed my self-importance. I sold my businesses and chose to retire (for now)–driven by the pandemic also—to care for my parents and serve in our ministry. It became evident when my husband (and others who I am close to) climbed the ranks while I have felt my life stand still. I went from being ‘somebody’ to being, in my book, a nobody. No more was the acclaimed aspect of myself, the blonde girl who literally built bowling centers for a living, who owned a bowling center and a bar (whoa!), who had disposable income to be generous with and play with and with which spoil others, who told others what to do and paid others to accomplish what I was capable of but didn’t want to do myself. I am learning so much about myself and really wasn’t very fond of who I was meeting deep down inside of me. I missed the spotlight and the oohs and ahhs and everyone wanting to have my attention…the very thing I abhorred about others who pretended to be ‘all-that’. I learned who I truly was down inside, and it made me very sad. It is often said, what we pick out in others that we don’t like is often because we can’t face it in ourselves. How true I found that to be!
But God is teaching me to love others—and love myself especially—in a different manner. I am learning to step into the shadows and bask in the warmth that is sprayed from someone else’s spotlight, to autograph someone else’s yearbook, to buff someone else’s shoes, to shine someone else’s medal, to wash someone else’s feet. We find Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, the Prince of Peace, Lord God Almighty, knelt on the dirt floor of a hidden upper room, with a towel and basin of water, dipping the nasty feet of His disciples—those who should have instead been washing His feet—serving them by washing their feet. How unlikely would us swelled head, inflated balloonistic individuals, be to exercise what Jesus demonstrated so naturally?
How did the God of the Universe find Himself washing the soles/souls of those He had come to serve and save? In fact, how did the God of the Universe cross over from a regal, royal throne and step into human skin, to enter the messiness of our broken existence, to identify with mankind? Isn’t that the ultimate sacrifice, the most surprising Undercover Boss you ever heard about? “That is what I came for,” I can imagine hearing Him say. While His disciples attempted to save Him from the cross (aka, Peter), His response was, “Get behind Me, Satan; that is the purpose of My being here. Don’t undo or rob Me of My purpose.” Isn’t that the greatest display of love you can imagine? What a perfect example Jesus gave to us on how to exist with purpose and humility, on how to love unselfishly! What would happen if we loved like that, washing the feet of others instead of waiting and demanding someone else shine our shoes and plant our gardens?
So many weddings happen every year during the month of June; so many ‘I do’s’ are spoken that eventually become ‘I don’t’s’, because we understand so little about love, God’s love, and the simplicity of it, the humility of it. What would happen if we too loved like that, if we found honor in humbleness instead of in enormity?
