“Love is patient, love is kind…love does not act unbecomingly... love does not take into account a wrong suffered…love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

Often when I have the opportunity to perform a wedding service, I remind the couple that love is not only an emotion, but it is a commitment, an action. I was challenged with this idea early in my own marriage. My wife and I were living in the Married Student Apartments at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. We had been married for a few short weeks. I was working late hours at a local fast food establishment and on this particular day, I had opportunity to sleep a bit later before my classes. Around 8:00 a.m. the phone rings, and in my sleepiness, I answer the phone.

“Hello,” I growl.
“Honey?” my new bride asks.
“Yes Dear?” I answer in a not too friendly voice.
“I’ve locked the keys in the car.”
“You did what?” I exclaim.
“Honey, I’ve locked the keys in the car, and it’s running, and it’s starting to rain,” she replies.

I angrily throw on some clothes and start the trek through the yard, across a path, through the pouring rain to the main campus where my wife was waiting for me. I was mad, to say the least. (Anyone who knows me well knows not to disturb my sleep. Some have called me a grizzly bear in hibernation.) On this day, I was feeling particularly “put out” and selfish.

By the time I got there, we are both soaking wet. My new bride is angry, too, that I have bee so selfish at the disturbance. As I get in the car, she growls at me for being so insensitive to her plight. I cross my arms and we begin the drive back to our apartment.

Somewhere along the drive, I begin to hear in my heart the words of I Corinthians: “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not take into account a wrong suffered, love never fails.” I begin to laugh at myself for my insensitivity. The laughing makes my wife angrier but when I explain, and finally apologize for my selfishness, she too, begins to laugh.

That has been twenty-one years ago. We have been angry with one another many times since then. Many times I have had to say, “I’m sorry.” But the truth remains, “love never fails.”

In this month when we celebrate love, let us be mindful of the opportunity we have to show love and to ask for forgiveness when needed. Most importantly, may we experience to ultimate love given to us in Christ.

A Reflection by Chaplain David Mann, M. Div

	Chaplain David Mann, M. Div david.mann@valleybaptist.net
> Reflection Archive