“Puppy Love” (I Corinthians 13)

Recently I learned that my oldest granddaughter has her first official “crush”.  Of course, I figured it was some kid in her kindergarten class, but I was wrong.  It turns out she has a crush on an older man . . . Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Miranda is an American composer, lyricist, playwright, singer and actor widely known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton . . . he also co-wrote the songs for Disney’s animated film Moana.  Apparently she is certain that she is in love with this 39 year old individual . . . she swoons when she sees him . . . swoons when she hears him.  Yeah, she’s certain she loves him.

Strike it up to “puppy love”.

I must admit, with this revelation about my granddaughter, it has made me think about my first crush . . . my first bout of “puppy love”.  Unlike my granddaughter, I was a late bloomer.  If my memory serves me right, it was fifth grade.  I remember her bright blue eyes . . . her blonde hair . . . and, her wonderful smile that seemed to me to light up the whole room when she entered the room.  I was awestruck . . . and, I was certain that I was in love.  I was in love with the student teacher for our fifth grade class.  How do I know that I was in love?  Well, she made me feel weak in the knees whenever I was around . . . I couldn’t speak in her presence—I just stammered with a googly grin on my face . . . and, she inspired me to do things I would have never done for the regular fifth grade teacher—Mr. Leggett . . . I wrote extra credit reports, volunteered to do tasks, and even kept giving her little gifts.  I was certain that I was in love.

Turns out, I got over it.  She completed her student teaching assignment and went back to college.  Broke my heart at the time, but I got over it.  It also turns out that it really wasn’t “love” . . . it was “puppy love”.  This would not be the last bout of “puppy love” I experience in my life . . . believe me, there were more.

“Puppy love” . . . also known as a “crush” . . . is an informal term for feelings of romantic or platonic love that we often experience in our childhood or adolescence years.  It is an adoring, worshipful affection expressed towards another.  It is a common experience in the process of maturing.  We have all experienced it and have felt its effects upon us as we probably spent a lot of time daydreaming and fantasizing while we were in the throngs of “puppy love”. 

Now, at this point, I want us all to get something straight, “puppy love” is not real love.  This is the point that the Apostle Paul wants to get across in our reading of the infamous “love chapter” of the New Testament . . . I Corinthians 13.  As beautiful as this passage is about love, Paul lets the reader know that love is tough . . . love is difficult . . . that is much more than feeling queasy in the stomach and all googly eyed.  Love is much more than a feeling that one feels . . . love is the way that a person lives his or her life.  Such love as “puppy love” was okay when one was younger, but it does not serve the purpose of Jesus as his followers embrace his words and ways.  This is a realization that the apostle wants the reader to understand.

Thus, writes the apostle: “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. 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.”  

It seems that too often we humans equate love as some sort of feeling.  And, true, love might start out as a feeling, but as we have gotten older we have learned that love is more than a feeling . . . we have learned that love is a lot of hard work.  Think about it . . . when our oldest child was born, I was overwhelmed with feelings of love, but two or three years later—even now—I have learned that those feelings alone were not enough when it came to loving that child.  Love is so much broader than any feeling, and it encompasses so much more.  Love is how life is lived . . . it is how we treat ourselves and others . . . how we respond the world around us.  It is hard work that confronts us on all levels of our lives.  The apostle knew and understood this.

Paul wastes no words on describing the depth of love and it impact upon living life—especially as a follower of Jesus.  Paul writes: “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 record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Did you hear what love is and isn’t? Paul tells us a little about what love is, but he spends more time telling us what love isn’t.  Did you listen to that list of things that love does not do!  It doesn’t get jealous or envious . . . good luck on that one.  Anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows how difficult that one is.  Doesn’t dishonor . . . name a day when we have not heard of someone being put down or of us putting someone down.  Love is not self-seeking . . . we are living in the “me generation” where we are taught to take care of ourselves before others.  Love is not easily angered . . . again, if you have ever been in a relationship you have probably been angered.  What Paul describes is nothing like the “love” I experienced when I fell for that student teacher in the fifth grade.  No, what Paul describes sounds like a lot of hard work.

And, it is.

I shouldn’t have to tell any of you how hard love is.  If you are a parent . . . you know how difficult love is . . . parenting pushes the parents to the limits and beyond to love these children that are constantly challenging and pushing the limits of love.  If you are married or have been married . . . well, you know it takes more than a warm feeling in the pit of our stomachs to make a marriage work . . . it takes real love.  Think of the people you call your friends . . . the people you have to work with . . . those relationships remind us that love is more than a simple turn of a phrase.  Love is work.  Just in our little sphere of life and relationships, it does not take much to remind us that love is tough work.

For the apostle, love is the foundation of life . . . it is the one thing that governs life and how we live it . . . every aspect of it.  As far as Paul is concerned, without love there is nothing.  He writes: “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. 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. 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 . . . Love never fails.”

Love is the way that we, as the followers of Jesus, are to live our lives.  It is how we are govern our lives . . . how we choose the words that we speak . . . how we respond to others . . . how we exist in the world.  Love is to guide us each and every day . . . every moment.  It is to be the key to answering Jesus’ questions about feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, comforting the wounded. 

When we fell in love with Jesus, it may have started out as a form of “puppy love”; but, as we matured in our relationship with Jesus we quickly learned and experience a deeper and more powerful love that is difficult to live up to.  Thus it is that the apostle writes: “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. 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.”

To love as Jesus loved is not easy.  It is hard work, but it is the only way.  There is nothing greater than love . . . nothing.  As he closes his argument, the apostle writes: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

In the end, it is the only thing that matters if we call ourselves the followers of Jesus.  Amen.