No failure

Failure is part of life. I fail at things all the time; often I get it right the second or third attempt, but I don't expect 100% success. And my things fail me: bike tires go flat, car batteries drain, old bungee cords lose their elasticity, fruit left in the fridge too long spoils. Nothing lasts forever.

Except love, Paul says. Well, and faith and hope. 1 Cor 13:8 starts with a simple, three-word declarative sentence:" Love never fails." And verse 13 says "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

He goes on to note that other spiritual gifts, like prophecy and speaking in tongues, have a shelf life. Even knowledge isn't permanent. But faith, hope and love always remain.

There are times when it doesn't feel like it. When relationships fall apart or life seems to hit and kick more than play nice, and no matter how hard we try to make things better they just keep getting worse, it can seem like no one's keeping the faith anymore, and there's not much hope.

But that's only because we give up, not because faith, hope and love do. We decide to focus on human faithlessness instead of looking at God's faithfulness. We give up hope because we see life in the context of our own strength, not His. And we, out of hurt most of the time, let our love turn to anger and lash out. But that's us. Those are choices.

The challenge is to let faith, hope and especially love do their work in our lives, changing us and making us more like Christ. We give up too soon. But God never does, and that's why love never fails.