A Fresh Perspective

Writer Robert Roberts tells about a fourth grade class that played “balloon stomp.” In “balloon stomp” a balloon is tied to every child’s leg, and the object of the game is to pop everyone else’s balloon while protecting your own. The last person with an intact balloon wins. It’s a game rooted in the philosophy of “survival of the fittest.” In this particular fourth grade class balloons were relentlessly targeted and destroyed. A few of the less aggressive children hung shyly on the sidelines and, of course, their balloons were among the first to go. The game was over in a matter of seconds. The winner, the one kid whose balloon was still intact was the most disliked kid in the room.  But then, says Roberts, a second class was brought into the room to play the game, only this time it was a class of mentally challenged children. They too were each given a balloon. They were given the same instructions as the other group, and the same signal to begin the game. This time,...

The kind of love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 offers us a glimpse of what “the new creation” looks like (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). The actions Paul describes must, however, be nurtured and cultivated. Richard Hays, who teaches Ethics at Duke Divinity School says, “One cannot merely decide in a day’s time to start doing these things. They are learned patterns of behavior that must be cultivated over time in the context of a community that models and supports such behavior . . . the church should be a school for the cultivation of these habits and practices.” Yes, the church should be a school for the cultivation of the habits and practices of love. Because the church is called to be the incarnational presence of Christ in the world and an outpost for God’s kingdom on earth. Are we going to fail? Of course. We are human after all. The habits opposed to love run deep and are hard to break. This is one reason why forgiveness is such a central theme in Jesus’ teaching and...