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1 Corinthians 13:4

"Love endures long and is patient and kind..."

It's no big "wow" factor for me to tell you that the world we live in is hectic and mean. We are all trying to keep up with the intensity of the world around us. Things are fast. People are mean.

The thing is, we are called to be different than the world around us. When you gave your whole heart and life over to Jesus the deal was that because He first loved you, you now understand this crazy love and you must walk in it. His pure, perfect and beautiful Love. As I read some of the stories that those who walked and talked with Jesus wrote down, I watch such a patient, steady and kind man. He wasn't in much of a rush, and He was the nicest man who ever walked the earth. He waited for His friends to catch up to Him as he walked and talked. He gave them time to understand what He was trying to teach. He was patient with them as He taught them all about His Father in heaven and the purpose of why he had come to earth. When He visited peoples' homes and ate with them (one of His favorite things to do), it seemed He was never in much of a rush to leave. He placed value on the underdogs of society; the ones no one had time for He spent time with, and loved their company. Even as His enemies tried to out-wit Him and out-talk Him in spiritual and "religious" matters, He was slow to speak, and when He did He spoke with wisdom and power, always with a kind spirit. He understood where people were at, and loved them right then and there.

Some Bible translators wrote, "Love suffers long..." Jesus waits and waits and waits for every single human heart to come to know and love Him. For Him, this is torture. He waited on the cross to die instead of using His power to escape, He lived 33 years on earth away from His Home in heaven to go after every little lost soul on earth and those to come. He is the patient One who understands the meaning of suffering long. I don't know what you are waiting for. It could be lunch, it could be summer, it could be a "break," it could be the healing you've been praying years for, it could be your child to come home, or maybe you are simply waiting for your Home in Heaven you've heard so much about, and although you know you don't really 'get' it, something inside of you yearns for this place of dreams and fulfillment.

So maybe take a pen and paper and write down some of the ways you can walk in love today through patience, long suffering and kindness. Ask His Holy Spirit in you to literally keep hanging on for you. Especially when time has passed and you feel forgotten, or the person at the grocery store is driving you insane and you want to punch him or her in the face. There are so many ways to be like Jesus from the time you wake up until the time you fall into bed at night. One at a time though. Walk in love. Wait patiently and be kind to people. Always.