Meandering Moose

I Don’t Know Much, But This Much I Do

I will start by saying, “I’m not much for musical movies”. But I wanted to see this one because it was about camp; and a Christian camp at that on Netflix. The movie is “A Week Away“.

Movie description: Nowhere left to go, Will Hawkins finds himself at camp for the first time. His instinct is to run, but he finds a friend, a father figure and even a girl who awakens his heart. Most of all, he finally finds a home.

He finds himself on a bus to church camp. This sounds SO much like many of the campers who come to our Ignite Partnership camps.

During the campfire scene, various people stand and say, “I don’t know much, but this much I do” and then go on to say something about another person at the campfire. As the camp director quotes his wife saying, “God is up to something. He is up to something good. He’s up to something amazing“. And, being a musical, after his daughter speaks, they break into the song, see click here; Our God is an Awesome God, in multiple harmonies and even a descant.

This reminds me a lot of our “Encouragement Fridays” at Widjiitiwin. On Friday mornings at 7:00 am, the staff gathered to encourage each other (as part of our daily staff prayer times). It went something like, “I have an encouragement for (insert camp name)” when they did something amazing for my cabin by helping me with devotions or took time out of their schedule to sit with a camper or helped run the silly campfire or gave their testimony or the leadership team did the dishes or so much more that happens at camp. These times are very meaningful for recognition of what someone has done, but also to let them know how much it meant to you for them to do it.

At the end of the summer we also take time to put each staffers name on a large piece of coloured Bristol board and the the rest of the staff take turns writing encouraging words to that person. I still have a bunch of the ones given to me over many years.

WHO will your words be an encouragement for today??

A Week Away was filmed at YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Antioch, Tennessee, USA.

Home Plate

“17 INCHES” by Chris Sperry, Baseball/Life

Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA’s convention.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment – “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.

In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung – a full-sized, stark-white home plate.

Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy? After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally…

“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”

Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.

“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”

“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.

“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”

“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.

“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”…

“Seventeen inches!”

“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?…

“Seventeen inches!”

“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’”

Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? “

The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.

We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”

Pause.

Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”

Silence.

He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”

“And the same is true with our government. Our so-called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.

From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: “If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”

With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “We have dark days ahead!.”

Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players, no matter how good they are; your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.”

And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and now go out there and fix it! “Don’t widen the plate.” Good advice for baseball players, great advice for Christians!

Back to School Tips

Summer has come to a close, let the transition to school begin. TODAY! Here are some “TIPS” that are collected from teachers and education experts that your family might find helpful.

1. Summer programs teach kids that taking care of themselves leads to success. Keep that going! Ensure your child is getting enough sleep, eating regular meals and healthy snacks and has daily exercise. When your children’s minds and bodies are nourished, they are at their best.

2. Designate a distraction-free study zone! Research shows after being distracted it takes 25 minutes for your child’s brain to refocus. Turn off those cell phones. Be sure to block all notifications and social media app’s on the computer.

3. Be organized. Organization is a family affair. Encourage your students to keep a homework planner/calendar for work, play and all extracurriculars. Tests, band practices, away games, half-days and holidays are just a few examples of reminders for your planner.

4. Start the year with good study habits. Suggest to your students to look over their notes each night to make sure they’ve got it. Fill in details, edit the parts that don’t make sense, and star or highlight information that is most important. Encourage them to study a little every day. The more familiar the material, the easier it is to remember it when it counts!

5. Encourage your student to make a friend in every class. Those will be the buddies to call to ask about the homework assignment and will be a ready made study group to review materials for tests and projects.

6. Help is available if you see your child is struggling. You can ask for help. Teachers, tutors and mentors can be a source of support for kids of all ages.

7. Charge Away! Insist on a designated charging space outside of your child’s bedroom. All electronic devices such as, TV’s, gaming devices, phones, laptops etc., should be as far away from your child’s sleeping head as possible.

8. The school year is full of challenges. Remember to be a supportive parent. Open your eyes and ears. Provide support and guidance while teaching your students independence and the ability to problem solve on their own.

The Journey Makes Us Who We Are

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Not all those who wander are lost.” in The Fellowship of the Ring. We’re all on a journey in our personal lives and that includes our journey to or away from God.

Here are a few with incredible stories of resilience.

I’ll start with Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom to destroy the “One Ring”. IT seemed like they were wandering, but they maintained sight of their goal and pressed on. But it started much earlier with the fellowship of the ring, setting out from the Shire and then Rivendell to try something that seemed to be doomed from the start.
Abraham as God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to take him to the Promised land where the Jewish people would eventually settle.
Joseph: his brothers hated him, sold him into slavery, being falsely accused, ending up in prison, forgotten there, before finally becoming second only to Pharaoh. He followed God’s path, not his own.
Moses lead the Jewish people who wandered for 40 years in the wilderness for not following God. When they did make it to the promised land they were certainly a different people.
Ruth, as she came back to Israel, a foreign land, with her mother-in-law not knowing what fate was before her. It brought her to a new life with a kinsman redeemer and became part of the
David, as he fled from Saul to save his own life to soon become the leader and second king of God’s people. He wandered from cave to cave and country to country before God brought him back to be king over Israel.
The apostles as God dispersed them from Jerusalem to be evangelists across the know world in the first century, spreading the Gospel message as they went.
The nations of Judah and Israel and they were lead away into captivity in Babylon. Yet even there, God was with them, accomplishing His work in them.
Jonah certainly wasn’t wandering as he willfully ran away from God’s plan to “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
Me, as God has lead me from place to place and camp to camp, even a year working for Canadian Pacific. Each job and position building on the last one to accomplish His purposes. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
And YOU

Who are the people, events, situations, traumas, highs, lows, heartaches, set-backs, inspirational messages, etc. in your life that have helped shape us into the people we are?

I have done two different exercises with the Widji leadership staff looking back on the journey of their life so far to see which people and events in their life have influenced the person and leader they are. Take some time and think back over your life and discover the many ways God has been leading while you thought you were just wandering.

We’re all on a journey. Where is yours leading? How well are you traveling that road?

Digital Detox

In the movie “Field of Dreams” starring Kevin Costner, Archie “Moonlight” Graham says, “We just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments while they’re happening.” That is so true if we’re not paying attention and focused on what is happening in front of us.

At her wedding, my daughter Nicole insisted that we all put our phones away and “be in the moment”. That way we didn’t miss the important moments while trying to get the perfect picture of the bride and groom. When we teach our staff during staff development week, we talk about being present in each moment.

Do you ever feel addicted to your phone or find that your whole day is spent staring at a screen? I certainly do! And my wife would agree, even if sometimes it’s my laptop. I was once “caught” on TV attending a Blue Jays game and they showed me looking at my phone. OOPS.

I have heard that this “addiction” to technology is not necessarily bad nor should we feel guilty about it. We should simply find time to “disconnect to reconnect.” Here are several strategies that offer us an opportunity to reclaim our “me time” and “people time” offering us more time to connect with others.

Eat at least 1 meal a day without a device: Use this time for yourself or to be fully present with others.
Use the phone first to contact people: There is a more personal connection when speaking with someone on the phone instead of texting or e-mailing.
Schedule mini breaks throughout the day or mini “digital detoxes” where you are not connected to your phone, laptop, tablet, TV, radio, etc.
Give your eyes a break and follow the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes look at something that is 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Also, walk around from time to time.
Set a technology curfew: Turn off your phone and television 60 – 90 minutes before bed. You will likely get better sleep as a result. Personally, I struggle with this one.
Avoid multi-tasking: No one is as good at multi-tasking as they think. Instead of multi-tasking, create a schedule for yourself each day. I do this a LOT!!
Disable push notifications on your phone that are not critical: This will help eliminate unneeded digital distractions.
Create tech-free walls/areas in your home: There should be certain places in your home where technology is not used (like the bathroom, for example). I do this too often to be sure.

One of the things I enjoy most about camp is that I can digitally detox. I can be fully present in each moment of camp because I am not distracted by the many different forms of technology. At Widji, there is a mostly no cell phone policy and we do not have any activities that involve video games or computers. No one is walking around camp bumping into each other because they are staring at their cell phones. Everyone is fully present in the moment.

I admit that separating from my phone during the day is always a bit of a challenge. I can be completely plugged into all the wonderful things that are happening… and then it is always fun looking at my phone at the end of the day (absence does make the heart grow fonder after all).

When I Get to Heaven

How many times have you heard someone say, “When I get to heaven…” and then they go on and on saying what they’re going to do or who they’re going to see or ALL the questions they plan to ask God. There are dozens of songs about it too. I think the focus will not be on us and what we want, but on Christ and worship of him.

When I anticipate my first glimpse of heaven, I remember the first time I walked from the parking lot of the visitor’s centre to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. As you walk up you saw nothing of the canyon and then all at once there it was, wide open, majestic, wonderful, incredible. I was mesmerized. I actually went back and walked up again just to experience it over again. I think it will feel something like that, only way way more.

What is heaven really like? Let’s see what the Bible has to say.

Heaven is the place where his presence uniquely dwells to bless. It’s the place of our treasure (Matthew 19:21), our citizenship (Philippians 3:20), our inheritance (1 Peter 1:4–5), and our stored-up hope (Colossians 1:5).

Heaven is a real location (John 14:2–3; Acts 1:9–11; 7:55–56). When followers of Jesus die, though our bodies remain on earth, our souls immediately enter God’s presence (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8).

We still won’t know everything. God alone is omniscient. When we die, we’ll see things far more clearly, and we’ll know much more than we know now. But we’ll never know everything. In heaven we’ll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn’t a flaw. Righteous angels don’t know everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12). They’re flawless but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge, as angels do.

We will recognize one another. Scripture gives no indication of a memory wipe causing us not to recognize family and friends. Paul anticipated being with the Thessalonians in heaven, and it never occurred to him he wouldn’t know them. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18” After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “The things God has prepared for those who love him” are “revealed to us by his Spirit.” To counter false, unbiblical notions, we need to study and meditate on “words taught by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:13). Our eternal home is a real place (John 14:1-3) where we will reside in real, physical bodies (1 Corinthians 15) and where we will experience everlasting joys, rewards, and treasures (Matthew 5:12; Matthew 6:19-20; Luke 6:23).

God dwells there (Revelation 21:3) and the light of Jesus will permeate every corner of this place (Revelation 22:5). Charles Spurgeon said, “To the lover of Jesus it is very pleasant to observe how the Lord Jesus Christ has always stood foremost in glory from before the foundation of the world, and will do so as long as eternity shall last.”

We shall see the Lord “face-to-face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The fact that our all-knowing, all-powerful Creator will dwell with us and we shall know him in an even more intimate way should be sufficient for the true Christian to rest assured that they will be satisfied there.

I think we will have meaningful work to do. Work was part of God’s original plan for humans before the fall (Genesis 2:15). God is always working (John 5:17) and Jesus said his mission was to finish the work of doing the Father’s will (John 4:34) to bring God glory (John 17:4).

The descriptions of the new heaven, earth, and heavenly city in Revelation 21—22 provide a dazzling picture of the believer’s future home, a place that should cause us to greatly anticipate living there for eternity.

The Old Testament Shadow of Jesus Christ

The first (or old) testament points to Jesus in the new testament, while the new testament and life today point to eternity.

Everything before Jesus points to him. Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father. The old testament was a shadow of what was to come in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the fulfillment of the old testament. The shadow was incomplete. You cannot understand Leviticus without Hebrews, or Daniel without Revelation, or the Passover, or Isaiah 53 without the Gospel account of the crucifixion. Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins” Hebrews 10:1-2

If I were to come around a building with the sun to my back, you would be able to see my shadow coming. You would be able to ascertain certain things about me. You could see if I was tall or short, fat or thin, if I had long hair or short hair, there would be many things that you could get a glimpse of by the shadow that was arriving around the building before me. However, once I appeared, you wouldn’t need my shadow to determine how I look, you would have the real thing standing in front of you. The same is true for Christ. The Law gave an outline of what Christ would be, but it merely served as a shadow to the real thing. Once Christ came, there is no need for the shadow. It is ridiculous to pay more attention to the shadow than the person. Juli Camarin

A “shadow” necessitates and comes before a reality. Jesus Christ and God’s plan for man’s redemption existed before the world began. Though we see that Man and that plan in the New Testament, their shadow falls backward (in time) across all the people and events of the Old Testament. In another way, it is like God wrote a great “mystery story”, and only when we reach the end to find out “whodunit” can we see how all the clues pointed to it in the earlier chapters of the book.

The author or Hebrews wrote, “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin” Hebrews 10:8-18.

You can learn a lot about a thing from it’s shadow, but you can’t learn everything. And, when the shadow caster shows up the shadow is of far less consequence. Not because the shadow was incorrect, but because the shadow was incomplete. “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” Colossians 2:17. The disciples and all in the first century had grown up on the shadow. Jesus is the perfect representation of God the Father. Jesus came to point us to the Father. Andy Stanley

How amazing would it have been to be walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35 as Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (v. 27). I would love to have a sit down with those guys!!

The Sleeping Disciples

The sleeping disciples; read Matthew 26:36-46 (below) for full details, but here is my summary. Following the last supper, Jesus took his disciples to the garden of Gethsemane, where he went to pray. Three times he went a little way from them to pray. Each time Jesus came back from praying, he found the disciples asleep. Jesus’ prayer was about God taking the burden of the cross from Him, but he preferred to do God’s will.

Jesus wanted their prayer support and they couldn’t do it. Jesus needed his friends to stay awake and be with him. But, his disciples fell asleep. Peter, James & John… all three of them – dead to the world. It’s like when you stretch out on your couch to watch the big game or a favorite movie and you fall asleep and miss how it ends. You missed the best part.

God wants us awake and alert, not only to serve Him, but for Him to equip us to serve others. He will make us more like Jesus and send us out so His work can be done through us. He calls us to actively listen for His direction and to readily to say “yes.”

It’s difficult for us to get angry with the disciples who couldn’t pull an all-nighter. When I’m sleepy, I go quickly, like within a few minutes. But, something was different with their sleep. For Jesus to believe they should have stayed awake, it means they could have. For the disciples to be speechless when he wakes them up, demonstrates they were uneasy with having fallen asleep. Don’t fall asleep when Jesus asks you to do something.

Do not sleep while the greatest spiritual battle goes on in the world around us. Stay awake and PRAY!! The hour has come!

Matthew 26:36-46 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

From here Jesus went on to His trial and crucifixion before He rose from the dead to conquer sin and death for our salvation.

God Help Us

Re-blog from Dan Bolin, Refueling in Flight Ministries

A cadre of young children gathered sticks and branches to construct a fortress along a stream that meanders through a park near our home. A strong wind could have toppled the structure but for the children, it was their safe and secure hiding place.

We all long for a fortress, a place for safety from the hazards and dangers of life. We want a place that is secure and provides protection for us and those we love.

So, we build. We build flimsy forts of wealth, power, and prestige thinking they will provide the security we desire. Rather than using God’s many wonderful gifts as tools to accomplish more good deeds, help others, or share the good news, we erect ineffective structures that will never provide the protection we crave.

David knew a little about seeking protection. He prayed, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:7)

Enjoy God’s many gifts, but do not look to them for the help they were never intended to provide. God alone is our hiding place, our protection from the threats that will surely come our way.

“God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.” Elisabeth Elliot

Dan Bolin
President
Refueling in Flight Ministries, Inc.

The Greatest Of These Is Love

Love is much more than an emotion. It is an action, a decision, a choice, a verb and a commitment. We would have a healthier conception of love if we understood that love, like parenting or friendship, is a feeling that expresses itself in action. To love is to feel and act lovingly.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

The love of other people is directional. There is a lover and a beloved – you don’t just love, but you love at someone. And real love is not only about the feelings of the lover; it is not egotism. It is when one person believes in another person and shows it.

1 John 3:16-18 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 (See also Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Mark 12:30-31 and Luke 10:27)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” Galatians 5:22-26

1 Corinthians 13 (Philips translation)

If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.

Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

For if there are prophecies they will be fulfilled and done with, if there are “tongues” the need for them will disappear, if there is knowledge it will be swallowed up in truth. For our knowledge is always incomplete and our prophecy is always incomplete, and when the complete comes, that is the end of the incomplete.

When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am a man my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me.

At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!

In this life we have three great lasting qualities—faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.