Christian Photographers Community

The Thing We Prize Most and Experience Least

"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God,
and he who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7

One of the great ironies of our lives is that the one thing that most of us prize beyond all else but experience less is love. We want to be loved, and we tell the people around us that we want to love them, yet no other single source of hurt in our lives rivals love: men, women, and children are damaged and exploited in innumerable ways in the name of love. Failures in love due to rejection and abandonment are "past finding out." But God's command is relentless: love is the center of both who God is and who we are. We better get on with it.

Lord Jesus Christ, you know how clumsy I am in love. You know I keep trying to find commands easier to keep that would certify me as your disciple: approved ideas, great projects, devotional schemes. But you didn't do that or I wouldn't be here; you loved and commanded love. As I receive your love, I pray that others, the people I live and work with today, may receive it through me. Amen.

By Eugene Peterson