The thing that succeeds

I have a painted board in my kitchen above the cupboards that reads: "Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails." This is one part of the most oft quoted line in the Bible, a line that seems almost universally known. It shows up in wedding ceremonies from the most religious to the most secular. It comes from a passage in I Corinthians. I spent my high school years staring at a hand carved version of this famous passage--an enormous wooden plaque at the front of the chapel at the boarding school I attended. The chapel did not have any religious images. This passage, apparently, was not deemed religious.

It is interesting that it strikes such an interfaith note, that people from all backgrounds are drawn to it. There is no reference to God or Spirit or Jesus in the passage, simply Love, but this Love that is written about is quite different than your garden variety. You may love gummy bears and warm summer days and bubble baths and chocolate, but this Love distinguishes itself through some incredible qualities. The one I am thinking of tonight is contained in the words: "love never fails."

How amazing! Something that never fails. Something that never fails is something that always succeeds, no matter what. In my own life, there are a number of areas in which I strive and labor and work to succeed. In trying to succeed I often get tired or irritable or irritated or grow helpless. But Love does not fail, nor does it grow weary or bitter or angry.

Sometimes, with my children, I can try every kind of method to calm them down, to repair a crises or squelch a tantrum, without any success. Then, one word of love, genuinely spoken from my heart, changes everything. While we cannot, in our own strength and wisdom, succeed every time we do something, Love can, Love does, and Love will. Try for yourself, the next time you have a challenge or a conflict. Instead of using your head knowledge, your will or your wit, tap into the Love of the Universe. (Imagine the love of every person on the planet put together and combined. Imagine the power of all of that love and we might get a glimpse of this greater Love.) How do you do that? I don't always know. Pausing, breathing and remembering that Love never fails can help. Love can accomplish what needs to be done. Even a moment's meditation on such a powerful thought might be enough to open us up to allow the Love that knows no failure to move through us and work in us.
--Reverend Sam Wilde