Okay, I’ve been a really lame blogger here lately, with no promise of reform to come.  Our family has been spending time at a quiet beach for a couple of weeks, and while I had visions of more time studying and writing, the opposite has been true.  I’ve become extremely relaxed while realizing how completely depleted I had become.  So anyway, on with the post I began writing weeks ago.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. . . .  the greatest commandment is this. . . love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  The entire law is summed up in love.

But.  Who can fulfill this law?  Who can love God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength, all the time?  Who can even come close to loving others as much as they love themselves?

Check out 1 Cor. 13 a different way:

God is patient, God is kind.  God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud.  God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs.  God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  God never fails.

On the other hand, I am not patient,  I am not kind.  I envy, I boast.  I am proud.  I am rude.  I am self-seeking and easily-angered.  I keep a record of wrongs.  etc.

And yet, I am loved.  By this wild and wonderful God who is full of mercy and love.  Who gives freely of his fruit to me.  The least of these.  His fruit is love.  For me and for others through me.  

Who can fulfill the law of love?  Not one of us!  But God already has.  I am so glad.