Love Never Fails

Human love fails.

Your love does, and mine…and the love of those we love.

Here’s an exercise for you.  I learned this from Elisabeth Elliot – it’s something she would do when she was feeling bitter toward her husband.  Turn to I Corinthians 13.  Put your name in place of “love,” only negatively.  The chapter reads this way when I do that:

Sarah does not suffer long, and is not kind.

Sarah envies;

Sarah vaunts herself,
and is puffed up.

Sarah behaves her herself unseemly;
is arrogant and rude.

Sarah insists on her own way,
and is easily provoked.

Sarah rejoices in sin,
rather than in the truth.

Sarah does not bear all things,
believe all things, hope all things...
endure all things.

Sarah’s love fails.

As naïve as I was when B.J. and I married, by God’s grace I knew our love would face trials.  My proof is engraved in his wedding band.    When I ordered his ring, the jeweler told me he could engrave our names and wedding date on the inside of the band.  I asked him to let me think about it.  And in the end, I had him to engrave something else on the inside of the band:  “Love never fails,” the climatic characteristic of love in I Corinthians 13. 

When he returned to Iowa at the end of the summer, I showed B.J. the ring.  He noticed the engraving on the inside right away, and his eyes filled with tears. “Not,” I told him, "because my love will never fail you, but because God’s love will never fail us.”

And it hasn’t.

And it isn’t.

And it won’t.

There’s a beautiful song, Love Never Fails, that says exactly what I meant to say when I asked the jeweler to engrave B.J.’s ring.  The lyrics are below.  You can listen to it by playing the video.

Love is not proud 

Love does not boast
Love after all 
Matters the most 

Love does not run
Love does not hide
Love does not keep
Locked inside 

Love is the River that flows through
Love never fails you

Love will sustain
Love will provide
Love will not cease
At the end of time 

Love will protect
Love always hopes
Love still believes
When you don’t 

Love is the arms that are holding you
Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound
When I can’t turn back around
When the sky is falling down
Nothing is greater than this 
Greater than this

Love is right here
Love is alive
Love is the Way,
The Truth, the Life

Love is the River that flows through
Love is the arms that are holding you
Love is the place you will fly to
Love never fails you