(1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NLT) If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
This has always been one of the chapters in the Bible that I keep coming back to again and again. I cling to it, not because I’ve got it down but because this is who I want to be. Of the things that have no spiritual value riding motorcycles is at the top of my list. Because of the risks involved I take every precaution each time I ride, including wearing the right gear, riding safely, watching and anticipating other drivers, and learning from those who know more than I do about the sport. In the motorcycle safety course I took I was taught to keep my eyes on where you wanted to go, not what you wanted to avoid. When going around a curve you are to look at the exit not the guard rail, when there is an obstacle in the road you are to fix your eyes on the way through it not on the obstacle itself. This is good to know when riding but it is also good to know when living life. Keep your eyes on what love is (1 Cor. 13) and move towards that, as you lean around that curve you may not be steady, you may feel like you are going to fall but you are learning. Concentrate on where you want to go, what you want your life to look like, who you want to be. Eventually, your movements from one curve to the next will flow and you will be steady regardless of obstacles in your path. God’s love will eventually become second nature and it will replace the human, conditional love that really isn’t love at all.
