meditation, love and other things about life.

So, this year I've started out trying to celebrate the discipline of meditation... and I've been camping out on 1 Corinthians 13 - committing it to memory and meditating on it's meaning and application in my own life. That's the trouble really. I'd rather meditate on love without application - 1 Corinthians 13 is THE love chapter - read at most weddings and celebrated as great literature/poetic and romantic - the problem is application. What I've found is that the kind of love that the Bible talks about it pretty much impossible for me to do. Actually it is impossible. the only way I can live a life that looks like the Love in 1 Cor. 13 is by letting Jesus love in and through me. My love runs out quickly. My own love is rude and self seeking - it boasts, is proud and obnoxious, it envies and keeps a long record of wrongs... etc... but the love talked about in the passage is not mine - it's God. God is love. And if you'd like to know what God is like - read Paul's definition of God in 1 Cor. 13. God is patient. God is kind. God does not envy. Is not proud. Does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
This is an interesting thing for meditation - substitute the word love for God. Chesterton suggested that what you think about God is the most important thing about you. I know I often think God is different from who I've found Him to be. He is kind. I've always thought Him to be judgmental or defensive - but He is not... He is patient and He doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Who knew? God is love. The greatest revelation of God is love. I was listening to a preach that suggested one of the great features of Christianity is how it can take open attack and criticism and still respond with love. Ravi Zacharias suggested that any other faith wouldn't be able to respond in that way - but Christianity (in it's truest form) is a revelation of God's character - LOVE. So maybe the Beattles had it right? Perhaps RENT's suggestion is my new year's ideal - I'd like to measure my life in love.