Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
What’s Your Cholesterol Like?
“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.“
Is that a high bar, or what?! And since the word ‘love’ is thrown about so commonly and carelessly every which way we look, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to take a moment to think about the quality of love that Paul describes as in this famous passage, paraphrased in this modern translation. I trust it will give pause for thought and allow us to practice love in this way.
Oh, to be Stuck on an Island! And Oblivious to the Times!
You Tell it, Sister!
Who Feels a Jalfrezi Comin’ On?
I was behind this today.
“My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?”
Following on the heels of yesterday’s advice, Paul is continuing to dish it out to the early Christians. Advice that is as good today as it was then: allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within you so as to affect a transformation within your life — slowly but surely. Don’t be quick to subject yourself to a “law-dominated existence”, one that is perhaps not truly sincere and one steeped in selfishness. Instead, if you are a believer, allow God’s presence in the form of the Holy Spirit to guide you, check you, direct you, support you, lead you, and be your constant companion?
Peach pie and coffee at the Lepkowskis’.
