December is around the corner. It gets crazy at that time of the year. If we let it. The commercials on television almost seem to demand that we buy, buy, and buy some more; All in the name of that word called joy. A joyous this and a joyous that – if we buy. Every year seems more intense than the last. I was scanning the book shelves of a very important person in my life, and came across THE LOVE BOOK by John Randolph Price www.johnrandolphprice.com . If ever you need to sit quietly and simply restore yourself this coming month you might want to consider doing it with this book. On page 17 is Paul’s letter to the Christians at Corinth. I forgot how beautiful it is. In case you’ve missed seeing it recently, here it is:
“If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crushing cymbals. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but I have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve nothing.
This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience-it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: It is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.
Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”