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If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 
and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains 
but do not have love, 
I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2 CSB
I thought this love was supposed to be warm and nice...but it can be quite confronting and challenging.
Last week the "I am" was a clanging cymbal. This week the "I am" is "nothing". 
My own internal voice says "I am nothing" when I compare, when I haven't achieved, when I've failed, when I wonder about my worth. 
Paul says it's not those things at all. It's if I do not have love. 
And he places this not-having-love in the context of faith, knowledge, gifting. Seeing all those things in someone doesn't mean that they love. 
Having all those things doesn't make a person any more, or any less valuable in the Kingdom.
The one attribute Paul is interested in that underpins everything, that changes everything, is love.
I wonder what context Paul would write this to our culture, to my church, to me?
"If I have the ______ and the _____ but don't have love, I am nothing".
It's not about what I have or haven't achieved, whether I've failed or succeeded at something, or how I look next to someone else, it's do I love?
Love God.
Love people.
Let the weight of culture, the burden of our own or others expectations drop. Let the drone of our own internal voices cease, and rest in the love and grace of our God, and let that love be first in who we are.
#sunday
#worship
#itsaheartthing
#loveoneanother

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