Perfect Love from Every Angle
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1
Casting Crowns asks in "Stained-Glass Masquerade" if they are the only ones to trade the altar for the stage. I wish they hadn't.
The impression from the stage, at some distance, is maximized to be flattering. Those with a one-way ticket for the altar have given up on the importance of impression. Time on stage is limited. Time on the altar is limited also, but not by one's own choosing. We are on the altar until Sovereignty outside our own volition decides what to do with us.
Paul speaks to the limits of stage presence in the opening of 1 Corinthians 13. Eloquence in life's impressive moments, he knows, is not enough. The tongues of men and angels, he says, are undermined if they do not flow from a life of steadfast love. Any music we might have made with our chosen words is dissonant with the real character that shows through in our steady actions.
Life has shown me the discrepancy recently. I can preserve my stage, what I do reasonably well in a limited work role, or what I write reasonably well and worth I get to select, and maybe reselect, and reflective moments, at the expense of more spontaneous and sacrificial opportunities out of the spotlight. In fact, any effectiveness I'm granted on stage can, by the perverse, impulsive calculations of my flesh, become reason enough to be harsh and self-justifying offstage.
And yet, I am in Christ. As 1 Corinthians 13 continues, I can rejoice that as love is patient, He is patient. As love is kind, He is kind. As love suffers long, He suffers long, in fact continuing to keep me at risk to His brand in the same relationships in which I messed up yesterday. Today's mercies, on and off stage, are opportunities to think differently, feel differently, and act differently because He is steadfast where often His own are not.
As Francesca Battistelli finds in "He Knows My Name" that in fact everywhere is a stage, we can be heartened and challenged both by the fact that our actions, His actions through us, are on display in both subtle and self-conscious moments.
Casting Crowns asks in "Stained-Glass Masquerade" if they are the only ones to trade the altar for the stage. I wish they hadn't.
The impression from the stage, at some distance, is maximized to be flattering. Those with a one-way ticket for the altar have given up on the importance of impression. Time on stage is limited. Time on the altar is limited also, but not by one's own choosing. We are on the altar until Sovereignty outside our own volition decides what to do with us.
Paul speaks to the limits of stage presence in the opening of 1 Corinthians 13. Eloquence in life's impressive moments, he knows, is not enough. The tongues of men and angels, he says, are undermined if they do not flow from a life of steadfast love. Any music we might have made with our chosen words is dissonant with the real character that shows through in our steady actions.
Life has shown me the discrepancy recently. I can preserve my stage, what I do reasonably well in a limited work role, or what I write reasonably well and worth I get to select, and maybe reselect, and reflective moments, at the expense of more spontaneous and sacrificial opportunities out of the spotlight. In fact, any effectiveness I'm granted on stage can, by the perverse, impulsive calculations of my flesh, become reason enough to be harsh and self-justifying offstage.
And yet, I am in Christ. As 1 Corinthians 13 continues, I can rejoice that as love is patient, He is patient. As love is kind, He is kind. As love suffers long, He suffers long, in fact continuing to keep me at risk to His brand in the same relationships in which I messed up yesterday. Today's mercies, on and off stage, are opportunities to think differently, feel differently, and act differently because He is steadfast where often His own are not.
As Francesca Battistelli finds in "He Knows My Name" that in fact everywhere is a stage, we can be heartened and challenged both by the fact that our actions, His actions through us, are on display in both subtle and self-conscious moments.
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