Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Recovery, for my mother, has now moved from the hospital to the Rehab Center; from “What can we do to ease your pain?” to “How much pain can we cause because we must move you toward healing…”

The approach is not – of course – intentionally harsh or painful, it’s just that progress after replacing a broken hip absolutely requires some movement through discomfort (or shall we say “challenge”?) if we want to see healing that is effective and lasting.

But it seems an awfully steep price to pay for the small decision she made, to demonstrate a little independence and go for a solo walk (without a cane, or help, or letting anyone know).

A fire truck. An ambulance. The emergency room. Countless scans and tests. Hip-replacement surgery. Five days in the hospital. Many lives disrupted. Countless tens of thousands of dollars. Who knows how long in rehabilitation?

And my mother has no memory from day to day, even hour to hour, of what happened and why she is in the hospital. “Why didn’t someone tell me I broke my hip?” she exclaimed – again – Wednesday evening when she called to complain that “There are a lot of people here in my house!” And, “It’s been weeks since you came to see me?”

We all fall down

Well, we fall down when we are out of balance, when we are not strong where we need to be, when we are trying to go solo when God has in actuality created us to be in relationship with others, and gifted us with community too.

We all fall down. Because we are willful, and we are self-focused, and we do not walk in the way – along the way – that God has invited us to travel.

And we wonder “why?” we stumble and the answer is always, “But I have invited you to walk with Jesus; I have a plan for all of you if only you live as Followers of The Way…”

We work so hard, and we invest such resources, and we get caught up in quests and schemes and commitments that take just about everything we have… and inevitably we find ourselves lying on the side of the road in need of rescue, because we are lost and unsatisfied and broken and not as independent as we imagined.

And Jesus holds his hand out, patiently, inviting us to walk with him along the way – The Way. And we find that we are not alone because Jesus invites us into community, into the reason we were created in the first place, into a life that we will find if only we first surrender, only if we give ourselves away, only if we allow ourselves to be reclaimed and restored.

In love, and because love is humble, love does not demand its own way, and love rejoicers in the truth – DEREK