And now abide faith, hope, love, these three

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Paul - 1 Cor 13:13

Did you ever see “Man of Steel?” I wasn’t that big of a fan. Don’t get me wrong; AMAZING action scenes, great costume design, and the soundtrack is just remarkable BUT the character of Superman really wasn’t built that well.

One scene captures my dislike for the character building and the major flaw of the Snyder-verse Superman. It’s when Clark is captured by the military and is being interviewed by Lois Lane and the dialog goes like this:

Lois: What’s the S stand for?

Superman: It’s not a S. On my world it means hope.

Lois (smirking): Well, here it’s a S.

We, the audience, should know that the Superman is a symbol of hope. We shouldn’t need the character to explain it to us. Snyder was able to capture the awesome fight scenes and the flying and the punching but he never developed Clark or Supes into a hopeful character. He had to tell us he was a hopeful character and movies should show not tell.

I feel like it’s the same problem we have in our own story. I mean, Paul gives the terms to abide in; faith, hope, and love. Sometimes we can come across so cynical and angry (especially online) that when someone looks at the cross around our neck and asks “what’s the cross for?” we receive a smirk when we tell them “it means hope.”

I don’t think the phrase “speak truth in love” is cliché; I just think it’s mostly ignored. We should stand on conviction and truth but to do so without a proper heart is apathetic at best and malicious at worst.

So how do we do what Paul tells us? Personally, I think it comes down to speaking when our heart is in the right posture.

Telling someone “the truth” out of deep concern and caring, with empathy and grace and patience is still hard, and still painful, but it’s loving.

Telling someone “the truth” out of legalism or disdain is almost easier? You can do so without concern for the other person’s well-being and especially online, you’ll be *cheered* for your one-sided approach and brutal technique.

It’s just that you’ll have to tell them what the cross means…because they won’t know from what you’ve shown them.