Love is Patient

Recently I was asked to read I Corinthians chapter 13 as a part of the worship service. Most of us are familiar with this chapter from weddings, it is often called “The Love Chapter”. I have read it dozens of times.

Here are verses 4 through 13 of that chapter:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
As I practiced it aloud in preparation for reading it in front of the congregation, I was struck in a new way what Paul was talking about. And I was convicted of my failure to live out these verses. Jesus told us that loving one another as we love ourselves is half of all we need to do to keep God’s commandments. We forget what love means but Paul spells it out for us.

This has been a hard winter for many in our country, and as a result many of us have forgotten what love means. We grumble about the economy and joblessness and loss of lifestyle. We point fingers and blame and critique every move of everyone in government and big business.

I fear that as a society we are slipping further away from really living out a lifestyle of loving one another.

Paul begins with “love is patient”. We need, I need, to remember to be patient with others. Patient with the car ahead of me that is moving a bit too slowly. Patient with the older person with their cart parked in the aisle while they ponder the shelves. Patient with that child that is too tired to behave the way we think they should. Patient with an economy that is slower to recover than I want it to.

Maybe if we/I practice patience my world will become a more happy place, maybe it won’t matter quite so much because I will be happier.

Maybe, just maybe, the idea of patience would be good for our society, our world.