The best things

"...if I had such faith that I could move mountains, 
but didn’t love others, I would be nothing." 
-1 Cor. 13

1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most beautiful passages in the bible.  The entire focus of the chapter is on the preeminence of love over every other virtue or work.  It is a "game changer" for us as Christ followers because we are often about moving mountains instead of loving the person next door.  We seem to see more importance in doing great things.  God values love over even the greatest thing we could do on his behalf.

We are a culture of accomplishments, goals and deadlines.  God is interested in people, not profit.  God cares about hurting people, not quarterly reports.  We are busy about achieving great things, while God is interested in us loving those around us.

In a culture that values the dollar, accomplishment, hitting our numbers for the quarter or even getting the house clean for the day we live with the dissonance of a God who cares about none of those things....he cares about people above anything else.

In fact, when he came as a man, he didn't pursue gold, glory or gain, he pursued the lost, the hurting, the rejects of society.  He wrapped his arms around those we would walk by in disgust.  He forgave those we would never forgive.  He loved people!

Love is messy.  It means we invest our time and affections in what God cares about, in the best things, and our world doesn't work that way.  We use people to reach our goals of financial independence, of success and making Wall Street happy.  Jesus would have smiled and thought us foolish for not focusing on the best things....the people.

Love is the best thing because of this one simple truth- the only eternal things you will ever encounter in your entire life are the people around you, the broken, hurting, messy people around you.  If you understand that then you understand the heart of God.  He loved and still loves the best things....people.  That's why he came...to show us what's most important.

Loving people, the messy dirty grumpy angry people around you is the most important thing you will ever do....

.....because it's exactly what God did for you!