Failing at Love

There is a passage of writing found in 1 Corinthians 13 that describes Love. This passage does not indicate to you how you will naturally act towards someone and then you know it really is love, but—as I quite painfully learn a few years ago, and am still learning today—this passage is a measuring rod to examine my life to see if I am a person who truly loves. I normally don’t find these verses to be too encouraging to me, because Boy do I fall far short of this measure. And it is this verse in perticular that is starting to question the quality of my Love. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” I Corinthian 13:7. What do I really believe Love is? And if this is Love . . .do I live it?

What does it mean to bear all things? I want to Love. So what does it mean . . . the word “bear” is translated from the Greek work of “stegō”̄ which is defined by the Strong’s Concordance as “to roof over, that is, (figuratively) to cover with silence (endure patiently): - (for-) bear, suffer.” Bears . . . in my pehaps uncultivated modern mind when I hear the word bear I think to hold of carry. I think of it like carrying a backpack. But the Greeks where using this word so differently—it actually is quite amazing to me. In the greek this means to “cover with silence,” it means instead of carrying a weight on your back to cover over and shelter—and with silence none the less. Ah, me in me self-centered-puffed-up-American-culture thinks that those I know and love should know how their actions are impending upon my “rights and liberties as a human being.” The way I want life to revolve around me is birthed out of a loveless mindset, paradigm, and culture. Love has nothing to do with your own rights, desires, or needs. Love has to do with humilty, inconvience, sacrifice, surrender, and servanthood. Love is about going lower and lower and lower. Love is covering over, or hiding, with silence—not brooding over it with silence but covering over offence with humilty. I fail at love.

Love means to “believe all things.” This is a little more straight forward but still the greek shines some light. “Believe” comes from the word “pisteuō”, which mean “to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.” For me it is easy to lose, or not trust another . . . I think that is the case for most people. But if I say that I Love . . . then why don’t I always believe? Why should I take the word of a person whoes character already appears to be untrust worthy . . . and believe it over the word from someone that I share Love? If I do not believe all things . . . what am I but a selfish selfseeking fool? If I don’t believe all things then I’m just living in a manner that is isolated so that I don’t have to make my heart vulerable. It takes more courage and strenght to believe—that to disbelieve. Again, I fail at love.

Love hopes all things. Here, hope comes from the word “elpizō” which means “to expect or confide: - (have, thing) hope (-d) (for), trust.” When we have faith, or belief, we are being sure of something that is in the present, even if we cannot see it, but when we have hope with are being sure and confident in something in the future even though it is not present. Hope is faith in that which is to come. So often I doubt. So often I don’t hope for the best. So often I expect the worst . . . when I claim that I am a person who loves. I fail at love.

Love endures all things. The word for endure comes from the greek word “hupomenō” meaning, “to stay under (behind), that is, remain; figuratively to undergo, that is, bear (trials), have fortitude, persevere: - abide, endure, (take) patient (-ly), suffer, tarry behind.” This definition nothing super revelatory. Enduring means to wait. It means to hold back and stay instead of running off. It means to go through the muck and mire and get in the middle of life instead of shrinking back being you don’t want to get a dirty by loving others and living life. I don’t know what else to say on this one . . . I fail at love.

But I don’t want to fail at love. At the end of my days I want people to say of me: “Above all things Lucas Skrobot loved. That is the only way to describe him . . . he loved.”