Sometimes I’m relieved to know that I’m wrong.

 – That I don’t have to know all the answers.

– That I’m not required to be the morality police for others.

– That my greatest responsibility stops with this:

LOVE.

Jesus didn’t include “being right” in the top two list of most important things.

When asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was, this was His response:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

Of all of the things He could have chosen from, He chose LOVE.

Because everything else hinges off of love.  The way we act and think and treat others all stems from our ability to love.

LOVE even gets greater standing than FAITH and HOPE.

Check out 1 Corinthians 13 again:

 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

LOVE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

 – Not the clanging cymbal of my “wise” words.

 – Not the resounding gong of my self-righteous attitude.

 – Not all the stuff I get right.

 – Not my “correct” opinions or preferences.

 – Not even my spiritual knowledge.

Over the Valentine’s Day weekend, many were worried about “Shades of Gray”.  But what if we concerned ourselves more with the “shade of red” that marks our lives?

What if we were so consumed with the debt of loving Jesus and others that we refuse to let these distractions become wedges that cork a properly bleeding heart?

The reality of Jesus’ blood should so stain my life that the only red I should see is His forgiveness and grace.  When people look at me they should see not a person who is always right, but who always, always loves.

I don’t have all the answers.  I don’t always know what is right in any given situation.  My opinions will not always be correct, even if I’m passionate about a topic or issue.  And even if I do know, and if by some chance I am right, I don’t always know the best way to communicate that in a way that is beneficial.

But I know what is NEVER wrong.

LOVE.

And that, I can do…. 🙂