Love In The Gap
Read The Daily:
“Love is patient and kind” – 1 Corinthians 13:4
Let’s talk about the gap. Not the old jeans store—the space between what we expected and what we actually experience. That moment when you thought dinner would be ready, but it’s not. When you expected appreciation, but got apathy. When you imagined your spouse would read your mind and surprise you—and they showed up late with gas station snacks and a “my bad.”
We all carry hopes and dreams into our relationships. And that’s good. But when those hopes get dropped into someone else’s box, they start feeling like pressure and expectations. Unhealthy expectations are those that we think we are owed from others, but in all relationships, we do have healthy expectations where we say we’ll take on different responsibilites. So the frustrating part is when an expectation I have from someone else doesn’t match what I experience. That’s the gap. And when you live in the gap long enough, it gets wider and wider. Here’s what Paul says love does in the gap: it’s patient, kind, not self-seeking. In other words, love doesn’t panic when there’s a delay. Love doesn’t point fingers. Love waits in the tension without turning it into a test. And yeah, I get it—sometimes that gap feels like the Grand Canyon. But don’t fill it with blame. Fill it with belief.
And let’s be honest—some of us aren’t just living in the gap…we’ve built a whole condo there. Fully furnished with passive-aggressive comments and resentment throw pillows. We thought, “They’ll eventually figure it out,” but that was 2017. At some point, we’ve got to realize that waiting for someone to guess our expectations or always match them is like waiting for our toddler to start doing laundry. Could it happen? Maybe. But it’s not looking good. Love doesn’t camp out in disappointment—it keeps walking forward with hope.
Prayer for the Day
God what are you showing me? What am I going to do about it?
God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?
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Read The New Testament In A Year
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law. Matthew 7:15-29
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:1-11