The Reality of Love - November 10, 2022

In the summer before 8th-grade, I made friends with a guy named Larry.  He was new to town, so I encouraged him to go out for our school football team.  It was a good news/bad news scenario.  The good news?  He made the cut.  The bad news?  He won my position.  I tried to be happy for him, but it was tough.

A few weeks into the season Larry fell and broke a finger.  I remember the day he stood at my front door holding up his bandaged hand.  “Looks like you’re going to have to play,” he said.

The passage Paul wrote was a lot easier for him to write than it was for me to practice.  “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”  You want to plumb the depths of your respect and love for somebody?  Then answer the question: How do you feel when that person succeeds? And how do you feel when that person struggles?