Years ago some one sent me this wonderful paraphrase of 1st Corinthians 13. I have found it helpful, not to mention meaningful throughout the years. I shared it with you all during Sunday’s Gospel service and promised I would put it in this weeks eNews. I must say I don’t know who wrote it, but I am grateful for whomever it was that did.
Enjoy,
Jarv
1st Corinthians 13
IT DOESN.T MATTER that I talk like a poet
Or sing like an angel:
if I am no good at loving, my life is an empty thing,
all noise, no music.
It doesn’t matter that I know all about religion
and have faith to work miracles:
Without love it gets me nowhere.
Or suppose
I share all the firm’s profits with my employees
And then give away my share to the Third World;
Or even die for a good cause—
if I act without love I might as well not bother.
LOVE MEANS being patient with people,
being kind to them,
and not envying them.
It means not boasting at them,
and not being rude to them.
It means not being selfish,
and not being touchy.
Love does not keep count of some one else’s faults,
or enjoy catching them out;
it prefers to see the best in them.
Love goes on trusting, goes on hoping,
and goes on putting up with things.
LOVE GOES ON.
When a prophecy comes true, it is done with;
you don’t need it any more.
When a promise is fulfilled,
You don’t need it anymore; you have the fulfillment.
When children grow up they don’t need toys anymore,
they have the real thing;
And someday, somewhere – in heaven perhaps,
we shall have the real thing
which all our human science and art and religion
were pointing to;
and then we shan’t need them any more.
But there will never be a time or a place
at which people don’t need love any more.
LOVE LASTS. Well, there are three things that last;
faith, and hope, and love.
But love lasts the longest.