I had a pretty good garden this year. I had a bumper oregano harvest. The bergamot was amazing. I’ve already made a gallon of spaghetti sauce out of my tomatoes and a gallon of raspberry jam. I even had plants growing under my porch!

Both the bittersweet and the anise hyssop were complete surprises because they popped up by themselves with certainly no coaxing from me.

Now I have tried hard to grow anise hyssop in the past. I love the licorice flavored tea the leaves produce. But all my attempts to grow this supposedly simple-to-grow herb, have met with failure or  with stunted little twigs which hardly supply a cup of tea.

Then last year I was walking up my drive and lo and behold there it was peeking out from under my porch, anise hyssop! The plant in the picture at the right is easily three feet tall at two years old. It has already run off two babies which are  taller and hardier than the three-year old midget plant I have in my formal herb garden.

I cut the bittersweet back the other day so I could make some fall wreaths. Some of the vines were ten feet long!

I have learned that some things just grow better in a sheltered environment.

Paul wrote, “It (love) always protects.” I Cor. 13:7 NIV

The Greek word means:

to deck,to thatch, to cover

a) to protect or keep by covering, to preserve

2) to cover over with silence

a) to keep secret

b) to hide, conceal

1) of the errors and faults of others

3) by covering to keep off something which threatens, to bear up against, hold out against, and so endure, bear, forbear.

You know people are like anise hyssop and bittersweet. They grow best in a sheltered environment protected from the nastier elements of the world.

The Lord knew this and so He said things like this:

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Prov. 18:1

The love of the Lord is a protection against the cold winds of life. We are called to be like the Lord in our love, always protecting. We are called to protect our loved ones dignity, privacy, and holiness.

I am interested in the fact that Paul chose to say “love always protects”. He did not say “love always rescues.”

Protecting really is being just like a porch. My back porch is not moving all around the back yard trying to cover this plant and that plant. It sits and waits for the seed to fall under its shelter. Then it does its job. It protects the seed so it can grow hidden away from the wickedness of the world.

God is the same. He doesn’t race around searching for people who aren’t trying to be found. He loves all, but if someone wants help they have to come into His presence to get it.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to You. ” James 4:8 says.

In our love we are called to protect like God does. This doesn’t mean being an enabler for a loved one who is going down the tubes because of an addiction.

Protecting does not involve sitting by and footing the bill for your credit card enslaved husband when he runs short of cash. It means  getting him help. It means keeping his confidences when he comes clean about the real reason he is spending thousands more than he has, rather than telling your sister and your mother and so on and so on…. It means being like my porch covering him so he can strengthen and grow to be the man God wants him to be.

So let’s follow the way of love. Always protect.

    In his letter to the Corinthian church Paul machine guns the following qualifiers of  real love. He says, “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.” I Cor. 13: 5,6 NIV

These are pretty self-explanatory on the surface. But as the adage goes they “are easier said than done”.

” Love is not Self-seeking.” How many times have I mentioned throughout this study that love is about others and not-self. The truth is, though, we never have a chance to test out our level of selflessness until we have to give up something we really want for what someone else really needs.

Selflessness is the wife and mother who gives up the career she loves for the family she loves. Selflessness is the husband who stays at the job he dislikes in order to keep his kids in sneakers. Selflessness is the grandma and grandpa who give up their retirement years to raise the grandkids.

“Love is not easily angered.” The New Living Translation puts it, “Love is not irritable”. Paul is taking love beyond action and into the realm of attitude. Not only is love other-centered, it is happy about it!

Love is the wife and mother who gives up the career she loves for the family she loves and yet retains her sweet spirit. Love is the husband who stays at the job he dislikes in order to keep his kids in sneakers and never complains about it. Love is the grandma and grandpa who give up their retirement years to raise the grandkids and who count themselves blessed to have the privilege!

     Love keeps no record of wrongs.  ”Logizomai”  is the word Paul uses. It’s an accounting term referring to balancing the books in an office, making sure all the debits and credits match. Paul is saying that love takes “wrongs done” off the books so that there needs to be no balancing done with an equal and opposite reaction from you.

Forgiveness means letting someone go without punishment even though they deserve it. Love “let’s it go.” It looks so simple in print but to live it out is another matter.

Love keeping no record of wrongs is the spouse forgiving the repentant cheater and moving on without divorce. It is the abused child reconciling with the parent who has successfully gone through  anger management. Keeping no record of wrongs is love ferociously battling in the warfare of life that is this world.

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”  I think there is an interesting correlation between this verse and Matthew 24: 10-12 Jesus said:

“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…” Mat. 24:10-12

The time Jesus is referring to is the here and now. We are seeing in our society the dampening of love, as wickedness increases.

People in leadership tell us to let go of old-fashioned ideals and join the rest of the world in the 21st century. False prophets abound and declare that the only way to true cultural peace is tolerance and acceptance of all views and mindsets.

The greatest problem with this philosophy is that it is a lie. Embracing and delighting in wicked choices causes love to grow cold. Without love there can be no peace.

So love rejoices when the truths of Scripture win out and undo wickedness in men. For then love can freely grow.

So love call us to self-sacrifice, to keep a sweet attitude even in the worst of circumstances, to forgive the unforgivable, and to fight against increasing cultural pressure to accept things we know are wrong.

I don’t know about you but that seems a pretty tall order for me to fill. How can I do it? Why would I want to?

Well I can’t make myself this kind of lover but God can. Further He does. As I open my heart to His Word through study and prayer God changes what I cannot change myself and I find more power in myself than I first thought possible. (2 Peter 1:3)

As to why I would want to walk this pathway of self-sacrifice, love is its own reward. It is the one power in the universe that will never be undone. To have love is to have everything.

I will pursue the way of love. How about you?

     I love cookies! I love cookie dough even more. Have you ever eaten a dozen uncooked cookie balls? I just did! Right now my stomach feels as though it has a bowling ball in it.

I actually considered putting this post off until tomorrow when I won’t be feeling as though moving to the computer will off-set the rotation of the planet… Duty has won out, but only just!

“Love does not boast. It is not proud.” I Cor. 13:4″.

Boasting and pride are like uncooked cookie balls. They feel good going down. Once they are in, though, they start to swell inside your spirit until there is no room left for anything else but selfishness.

Love cannot dwell alongside pride and boasting because love is other centered. Pride and boasting are entirely about aggrandizing self.

Strangely the root of pride and boasting is usually not a huge ego. So many begin down this path because they are looking for something they don’t have, self-worth. Rather than coming to find their identities in Christ men and women across the face of the planet have decided to create their own personas through shameless self-promotion.

The word used for boasting in I Corinthians 13 indicates not only self-promotion but exaggeration. The saddest thing about pride and boasting is that they are not based in reality. Both behaviors always lead the perpetrators to think things that are untrue of themselves. That is why pride can only come before a fall. The one who swallows pride always elevates himself to a higher position than he can maintain.

The remedy for pride and boasting though is love. When we begin in love to think of others more highly than ourselves, pride and boasting vanish as quickly as the bloat before Pepto-bismol or Premarin.

Further when love begins its work inside us the roots of inadequacy that foster pride and boasting are swallowed up in an abiding satisfaction that cannot be undone.

Let us love with passion then!

     In Massachusetts when we talk about “The Green Monster” we are usually referring to that giant green wall in our world-famous ball park plastered with the names of Fenway’s sponsors.    The rest of the world, though, knows there is a different green monster (or green-eyed monster depending on your upbringing) that is far more dangerous than a foul-ball into the bleachers.

Paul writes in I Corinthian 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy.” NIV

Note that this is the first place in the definition where Paul tells us something about what love is not. That’s significant. Love is not a lot of things, but the first thing love is not, is envy. The first thing love does not participate in is ungodly possessive envy.

Envy is defined as:

Now as we look at the definition “zeloo” is not always bad. Even in Scripture  “zeloo”, envy or jealousy, has its place under the direction of the Spirit.

Paul writes just one chapter later: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” I Cor. 14:1 NIV

That is “follow the way of love and “zeloo” spiritual gifts.” What?… But Paul you just said if I am following the way of love I will not “zeloo”.

Well dear reader there needs to be an understanding that there is a righteous “zeloo” and an evil “zeloo” in all of us, a Jekyll and Hyde, a two-faced coin.

The righteous “zeloo” is called zeal and the evil “zeloo” is called envy… same plant different root.

Righteous zeal has its root in Christ. For example Paul writes:

“I am jealous (zeloo) for you with a godly jealousy (zelos). I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” 2 Cor. 2:11

Here Paul’s jealousy is motivated to protect the Corinthian’s  and keep them from evil so that Christ might have a pure church. Paul’s motive is the Corinthian’s best. His heart is other centered.

James however writes about “zeloo” this way: “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet (zeloo), but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Evil “zeloo”, envy, has its root in self. It is not interested in the best of others. It wants what it wants and will do anything it has to to get it.

The husband who is wickedly jealous of his wife will lock her in and not let her out to see friends. The wife who is wickedly jealous of her husband will accuse him of an affair not because there is any evidence but because she is feeling insecure about herself.

At its root selfish envy is about fear and inadequacy. That is why love cannot have envy as one of its components because as the Scripture says: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

God help us to be zealous for You and content with that!