Life Verse

Most people have a life verse. Whether it's in the form of an actual verse or a special quote, these special phrases can help us get through our hardest and darkest of days. As I was on the train to Perugia this morning, I really felt led to spend those two hours studying the chapter of the bible that holds a verse that is near and dear to my heart: my life verse. As love and the concept of loving has been weighing on my heart tremendously this whole week, it just seemed fitting that I would find myself studying chapter 13 of First Corinthians. 

Everyone knows this chapter as the cliche love chapter. It's the section of the bible that is most quoted at weddings and it's sold on almost every scrap of Christian propaganda you can find. But when you actually meditate on it and take each single word for the gravity it contains, it becomes so much more than a cliche. I truly do believe this is really just Paul's way of giving us another example of how to live our lives. We should live with love. I also think that rereading any passage for a second, third, fourth, or fifth time can still prove useful and show you parts that you may have overlooked before. Different words might stick out to you or have a new relevance. 

Verse 13 of chapter 13 says this: Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest is love. 

Why is the greatest love?

"And if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:2 b

"[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:7

I cling to my faith everyday. I admit sometimes I am like a child, I need my faith. I need to know that I have the God of angels behind me. He will never break beneath the burden of my downfalls. But if I have this immense faith and I don't have love in my veins, my faith is void.

I need to have hope for the future. I feel like everyone needs to have hope in something. It's what keeps us fighting to make things better.  Hope is not naive. Love always hopes.

So if faith and hope are two of the biggest elements in our lives, love must be the greatest of all. In order to have faith, you must have love. And in the process of loving you become hopeful. You need love. Not only for these two traits, but for life as a whole. 

That's my life verse. Just over two years ago, I got those three words tattooed on my foot. I live by those words and this promise of love. I walk by faith and live by my hope, but I yearn to do all things with love. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13