The Inconvience of Love

I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love can be one of the most inconvenient things in the world. When we want to hate, we are commanded to love. When we are angry, we are called to forgive. When we want to be selfish, love cries out to sacrifice. Whatever our human natural desires, love calls from the other direction to do the opposite of what our nature wants. This is clear in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6, which says loves does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs and does not delight in evil. How many times would you rather be envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, or easily angered? When we are hurt do we like to keep a record of wrongs, or delight when something evil happens to those who are our enemies? The inconvenience of love can be very difficult, but we must remember we aren’t called to love when it is easy. We aren’t called when it feels right, or when people are lovable. We are called to love at all times, when it is convenient, or inconvenient. We are commanded to love when we are with people who are hard to love, to love those who don’t return our love. We are to love those who make it difficult by their words or actions. We are also demanded to love when we don’t feel like it, or when we would rather do what we want. We are called to love others when we would rather be alone, when we don’t want to go to the expense of loving them. Love is just plain inconvenient, it doesn’t go along with our plans and desires. We have a group of people in our lives which we want to love and be loved by. We have others whom we really don’t care too much about, and we have others whom we don’t want to love or be around. But as inconvenient as love is, it demands us to love them, no matter which group they are in.