Fortress of Faith: Study Two- Foundation of Love

“1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13 v 1-13

In our first study, I spoke very generally of love being the foundation to our Fortress of Faith. However, what does that mean? As a woman in the military, as a Christian woman, am I truly living a life of love, or am I merely doing and saying what I think I should as a Christian?

This week we are going to discuss verses one through three:
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Cor 13 v 1

We all know what it is like to be around someone playing a role, being insincere, saying what they think we want to hear. We can see them sucking up to their NCOIC, or to the Commander’s wife. We feel the strain on a conversation as they overplay their exuberance or abhorrence for whatever the topic may be. Yet, sometimes, Ladies, we do the very same thing in the name of our Faith. 
 
Sunday mornings in Chapel, or Sunday School, or in Bible Study, we all want to be “good Christians.” We recite our various memorized prayers for the sake of saying them, but pay no attention to the words we are lifting up to Him. We praise Him with songs not taking the time to understand what we are saying to Him. We greet each other with hugs and kisses while secretly wishing we hadn’t come today because we have so much waiting at home. These are just examples- the way I have felt during my days of struggle in Active Duty, where I felt the fakeness rolling off of my fellow Christians when I attended Chapel or visited a local Church, and turned that inward and saw that fakeness in myself.

How I must have sounded to God? Singing praise that my heart was not in? Reciting a prayer, or bowing my head in prayer, not for an instant considering that in doing so I was supposed to be reciprocating the love He has shown me? I was not a joyful noise in His ear. I was an annoying clanging bell! 
 
Yet how wonderful is His love for us that He still pulls us to Him? No matter where our heart is, His love never leaves us!

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 1 Cor 13 v 2

We, Christian women, have incredible God-given gifts. My gift is the gift of written word. My parents would call it an inherent trait as I have been a writer all my life- I was always better at writing my thoughts than saying them. Only rarely have I used this gift to glorify Him, and even more rarely have I written from love. As my parents can attest, they best saw my writing skills when I was angry at them or hurt. I could write pages and pages of self-centered, egocentric blather based on my anger, on my hurt, on my struggles. I feel a huge insecurity when writing from feelings of happiness, joy, and love. Even now, I struggle with writing this blog, making sure that I write from love, joy, and hope.

What is your God-given gift, your talent? When you use that gift/talent, is it from a basis of love? In what ways can you pull His love into your gift so that others can see that love?

What really speaks to me is the second part of the verse that speaks of faith to move mountains, and yet without love, that faith is meaningless! What?! This means, that you can have faith in Christ, you can KNOW that He loves you, but if you do not also love, that faith is meaningless! Faith without love is a faith with no foundation.

“If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1Cor 13 v 3

In 1999, I was in technical school for the Air Force. One evening a friend and I were taking a walk and discussing various different subjects- among them- faith. Now, this friend was an atheist. This friend was dear to me. We got along well. We confided in each other. We enjoyed each other’s company. There I was a brand new Airman, and a wary Christian, afraid of really sharing my faith with anyone, but still so sure that nothing could rock my faith. This friend did just that with one statement: “So, as a Christian, you believe that I will go to Hell because I do not believe the same as you.” I cried as I was forced to consider that someone I cared about was not someone I would see in Eternity. I cried as I wanted so badly to lie, to choose not to believe that portion of His Word, to pick and choose just the pretty messages so I could not offend my friend.

That moment started a quest to define my faith, to understand what makes up my faith. The result- Love, like our Lord has shown for us, is the foundation to our faith. Love reciprocated to our Lord helps our foundation stay strong. Love shown in our words, shown through our gifts and talents, and shown though our actions is what separates us. 
 
As Military Women, we move around a lot. We meet other women from all aspects of life. Those women are of different cultures, different religions, and different places in their faith. We will especially find women of our own faith that differ from us greatly due to upbringing, denominations, varying levels of maturity in faith, different circumstances in their lives. We have unique opportunities to speak love, to show love through our talents, to minister with love through our actions. 
 
This does not mean that we cower or hide. 
 
Stand tall! 
 
Rest in His love, lean on His promises, but in everything you do, do it with His love cementing the basis of your faith!

God bless you!!
~C. Borden

Copyright © 2012 C.H.Borden

Pardon me for repeating this video---It just perfectly retells 1 Corinthians 13 v 1-3. Enjoy!

Fortress of Faith: Study One- Foundation of Love

Romans 10 versus 14 and 15 say: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Good news indeed!  Then I joined the military, and was under the distinct impression that I had to curb my enthusiasm for my God and His incredible promises of love, grace, and mercy!  I had no doubt that the Lord wanted me in the military, but what I couldn’t figure out, was “why?” 

Pre-military I was on a path to go into missions.  I felt His tugging on my heart to go and help.  However, the places I imagined He was going to send me were places where the type of help needed was obvious.  Going to a third world country, helping to build a well, or a school house, or giving aid to medical workers to heal the sick- those are obvious needs.  What in His Name could I do in the military?  How could I minister to men and women who came from the same class as me, if not better?  How could I minister to men and women who didn’t struggle to keep a roof over their heads, or food on the table, or keep their babies from starving?  How could I minister to men and women who already had a purpose greater than themselves?  How indeed.

I went into the military with more questions and doubts regarding His will than I ever had with anything before, or since.  The doubts were so loud in my head that I began to get angry.  The two verses from Romans 10 beat around in my head like a bass drum, dragging me further and further into my spiral of doubt in my God who had never led me astray.  Why the doubts this time He asked me jump?  I struggled with the question of WHY He brought me to the military the entire time I was on Active Duty.  It was not until I joined the Reserves, five and a half years into my 6 year contract, that I began to see a glimmer of His role for me.

During those years on Active Duty, while I am sure I failed at every opportunity to witness to someone, to share His love with them; He certainly had not failed me.  Not once did He leave me to wander by myself, though there were periods when I am sure He was not happy as I struggled to do things my way. 

During those years, He placed people in my life who challenged me.  He placed people in my life who added to the testing of my beliefs.  He placed people in my life that helped me find the truth to my faith, the basis on which it all stands.  He placed people in my life who I would have cast out had I met them in the security of my Christian bubble back home.  Instead, those people had become friends, some as close as family, despite our differences.   Despite our opposite sets of beliefs (and sometimes moral compasses), these were men and women I served with, whom I shared life with, whom I came to truly love. 

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.”                John 15 verses 12-14

In looking back, that foundation of loving someone despite the differences became the truth of the foundation of my faith.  His love for me, His will for my life, His reason for placing me in the one place I never dreamt to go was to truly teach me how to love my fellow man.  In those lessons of love, I found His love to be even greater.  In those lessons of love, I found my faith to grow stronger, the foundation suddenly solid like it was meant to be.

1 Corinthians 13 speaks entirely of love.  Interestingly, it starts out talking about how if we do certain things, or act a certain way, none of it matters if we do it without love.  Could another lesson He was teaching me be that I was being a "Christian" without truly understanding what it is to "love?"  Could He have brought me into the military to serve among so many men and women who differed so greatly in every way to teach me that the love I thought I was full of was naught but an empty jar? 

Starting with verse 4, 1 Corinthians 13 states that “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,  it keeps no records of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  Then finally, in verse 8, it says “Love never fails.”  

I would love to break down each section of this passage, but will save that for another blog.  For now, I encourage you to reread the entire chapter (1 Corinthians 13).  What does this chapter mean to you?  When you say you love someone, do the characteristics of that love described above match the love you claim?  As a Christian woman, you know the love of God.  As a Christian woman in or around the military, you have the daily opportunity to live that love in the community in which you find yourself, in your newest workplace, in your base community, and in your home.   Once you add this foundation, this love to your life, He can start building the walls to your faith!

Dear Sisters, do not fear the changes He brings to your life.  His will has a purpose.  His love is never ending, and His grace is sufficient.  The future may be unknown, the path may be clouded in fears, doubts, and struggles, but be rest assured He is still with you, and He will be with you. 

God bless!

~C. Borden

Copyright © 2012 C.H.Borden