Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5 NLT)
The late blues singer Eva Cassidy sings a song titled Easy Street Dream in which she sings of easy love. In the chorus of the song she sings, Any love that is easy falls down like rain. Any love thats easy goes out with a bad name. Any love that you find on Easy Street can only be a dream. For years I chased an image of love that had been taught to me by Hollywood, music, novels, and fairy tales. My main ideas of romantic love were of a warm fuzzy feeling that brought complete satisfaction and contentment. How self-centered this concept of love was. I chased it in and out of bars, taverns, schools, concerts, big gatherings, small gatherings, and big and little parties. As Eva sings in her song, Any love you find on Easy Street can only be a dream. I chased a dream. For years I floated along after this dream on the river of denial. Looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces. Twenty-four years ago when I was 36 years old I remember reading for the first time the words of the apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of first Corinthians. At that time I began to realize that love was not feeling warm and fuzzy, but being warm and fuzzy for someone else. This morning as I once again study Pauls letter to the church at Corinth, a church with many divisions and problems, I see how his emphasis on loving one another could melt away any controversy that might have existed. What was true two thousand years ago will work today the same way. I am truly grateful for the unchanging Word of God that is our roadmap, our headlights, and our destination. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself ..JRE
Love is a lifestyle in which all our thoughts and actions are guided by our concern for others. Most of us need recovery because we have lived for our own gratification. As we sought to escape our inner pain through the fleeting pleasures of addictive activities or substances, we became blind to the needs of the people around us. That lifestyle left our past littered with hurt people and broken relationships. A life governed by selfless love is the only path to rebuilding our broken past. Knowing that God loves us no matter what our past is the place to start recovery. (The Life Recovery Bible, page 1377)
The late blues singer Eva Cassidy sings a song titled Easy Street Dream in which she sings of easy love. In the chorus of the song she sings, Any love that is easy falls down like rain. Any love thats easy goes out with a bad name. Any love that you find on Easy Street can only be a dream. For years I chased an image of love that had been taught to me by Hollywood, music, novels, and fairy tales. My main ideas of romantic love were of a warm fuzzy feeling that brought complete satisfaction and contentment. How self-centered this concept of love was. I chased it in and out of bars, taverns, schools, concerts, big gatherings, small gatherings, and big and little parties. As Eva sings in her song, Any love you find on Easy Street can only be a dream. I chased a dream. For years I floated along after this dream on the river of denial. Looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces. Twenty-four years ago when I was 36 years old I remember reading for the first time the words of the apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of first Corinthians. At that time I began to realize that love was not feeling warm and fuzzy, but being warm and fuzzy for someone else. This morning as I once again study Pauls letter to the church at Corinth, a church with many divisions and problems, I see how his emphasis on loving one another could melt away any controversy that might have existed. What was true two thousand years ago will work today the same way. I am truly grateful for the unchanging Word of God that is our roadmap, our headlights, and our destination. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself ..JRE
Love is a lifestyle in which all our thoughts and actions are guided by our concern for others. Most of us need recovery because we have lived for our own gratification. As we sought to escape our inner pain through the fleeting pleasures of addictive activities or substances, we became blind to the needs of the people around us. That lifestyle left our past littered with hurt people and broken relationships. A life governed by selfless love is the only path to rebuilding our broken past. Knowing that God loves us no matter what our past is the place to start recovery. (The Life Recovery Bible, page 1377)
