Rambling about Love

So, I'm working on a sermon for class next Monday night from I Corinthians 13. I had originally planned to preach verses 4-7 and call it "Love Hurts" talking about how loving the way that we are called to love based on the character of agape love is a painful process, one best modeled by Christ's own suffering. However, as I've studied this week, I'm drawn repeatedly to verses 1-3 about the necessity of love. It appears that chapter 13 is a parenthetical statement, inserted between chapter 12, an exposition of Spiritual Gifts, and chapter 14, Paul's exortation to pursue the gift of prophecy. It would seem more appropriate for John, the Beloved disciple, to write about love, but instead, it is Paul who says, without it we are nothing. This was a lesson that first became real to me on the mission field in Guadalajara several years ago. I spoke the language just fine, was educated and skilled in it way beyond my partner, but I did not love the people there. My heart was home, with friends and family in Texas, and I failed miserably to communicate anything eternal because I attempted to do it all without a sincere agape. This summer, I began praying for an increased faith -- faith to move mountains as it were -- and I have experienced rich blessing in that, but I have also seen that faith like that without the empowerment of love, accomplishes little. And, as we are regularly called on to give sacrificially, and others may benefit from our giving, it is clear that gifts without a heart of compassion, truly committed to the love of the poor and needy, profits me nothing. These are the things I can speak about with confidence and experience. It's when I get to that list in verses 4-7 that things get harder. I am learning to love even when it's painful, but I cannot say that I have learned to love like this. The beautiful thing about it is that as I learn more to love like this, I can be assured that I am beginning to look more and more like the Lord. Of all the things that God could say about Himself in scripture, He says He is love. Ephesians 5:1 says to be an imitator of God as dearly loved children. Imitating God is learning to love with agape love. Patient, kind, humble, gentle, selfless and on and on. Whew! This could take a lifetime. I think that I have been most captured by this passage because it caught me off guard. I mean, I thought it was just there to be read at Wedding Ceremonies. It's supposed to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside isn't it? Then, I started really thinking about this kind of love and what it takes to flesh it out. It's painful. Love Hurts. I tried telling God about it, about how I couldn't love like that because I would end up getting hurt over and over again, taken advantage of and taken for granted, repeatedly disappointed, and probably disregarded. He said, "I know."