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Morning Meditation
October 13, 2025
Reading: I Corinthians 13:1-8a
If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Meditation by Peter Vanderveen
For most of us, the primary task of life is putting things to use. It is doing things and getting things done; the more, the better; the faster, the better. And, if you’re deeply talented and tirelessly committed, you might be one of the few who discovers how to do something that has never been done before, which might qualify you for the supreme honor of being considered a genius or a superstar.
This is the inescapable conviction of our culture. We are all functionalists now, forced to learn how to do all sorts of things that someone else dreamt up as being the next greatest step in our continual progression. I feel this almost every time I update the operating system of my computer. Suddenly I have to adapt to doing something new, or doing something old in a new way. And it’s not because I asked for this or felt the need. It’s because constant acceleration and the consequent demand of keeping up have become our chief values.
But why these? We have come to take it for granted that this is simply the way life must be. We chase after things and struggle not to fall too far behind. This defines our days, our professional aspirations, our basic sense of well-being. And yet, ultimately, it’s hard to distinguish these values from the vices of greed and fear. After all, can you imagine a time when we might rightfully declare that what we have done and what we have achieved is now, definitively enough?
The billionaire Peter Thiel has taken to calling anyone who stands in the way of any technological development and its immediate employment “the anti-Christ.” And if this isn’t damning enough, he claims that the sign and the goal of the anti-Christ is the end of the world – its complete destruction. This, of course, is useful to him; and because it’s useful, few seem to be concerned that his views are theologically irresponsible. But one can, nonetheless, rightfully question how such convictions align with Paul’s great exposition of love.
There’s no chasing after anything here, no scrambling to win, no hint of warfare or judgment or damnation. There’s no end of the world. These verses have much to teach us, for they show us how our lives can be re-structured and reformed by contentment and satisfaction and joy.
Consider for a moment how much emphasis we place on keeping our children involved in doing as much as can be scheduled, to the point of exhaustion. Then ponder how much we’ve invited them to shape their lives by the breadth and depth and beauty of love. And which of these will provide meaning and happiness?
Prayer
We will stand before you, O Lord, at the last,
and we will know as we are known,
and we will see what we have failed to see;
open our eyes to see and know
that we stand in your presence now,
that you are here before us
in the needs of family, friends, and strangers alike,
seeking our response of love;
grant that we may respond now in such a way
that we may be prepared to stand before you at the last.
Christopher Webber: Give Us Grace
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