There Is Still Love
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Three of my four kids played tennis for years (admittedly with varying degrees of skill level), and I spent countless hours watching their matches, their forehands, backhands and serves.
I don't know how familiar you are with tennis, but the scoring system is sort of weird. Points include Love (what 0 is called in tennis), 15, 30, and 40. There doesn't seem to be much reason behind it.
I was thinking about tennis recently, since this has been my first fall in a few years I haven't spent watching set points and shuttling between matches, and it struck me that maybe we should base our lives a little bit more like tennis.
Between pitfalls, trials and struggles, it can be easy to become discouraged and allow the enemy to convince you that you don't have anything. That you're a zero. That you can't win. But in life, just like on a tennis court, even if you don't have anything that can be counted, you have LOVE.
John 3:16 is so simple yet so foundational when it says that God so LOVED the world, He gave His only son to give us life. No matter how little we have, because God gave us His Son, we will always have LOVE.
If you're in the midst of a season where all you can do is watch helplessly while points pile up and balls soar past you on the metaphorical court of your life, I urge you not to be dismayed. Your God has already conquered every battle you will face. He is the ultimate victory, and He has equipped you so that no matter what comes against you, you will always have LOVE.