One of our good friends who also works as a doctor at our hospital is Ari Cale. She is a pleasure to have with us, and you can go to her blog on our sidebar.  I was reviewing her blog this past weekend, and I saw this excerpt from a very long post reviewing the past couple months in her life.  I like how she has taken 1 Corinthians 13 and modified it for missionary doctor life.  Below is the excerpt, but you can visit her blog by clicking here.

I feel like this season of my life God has really been letting 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 sink in and helping me it apply it to aspects and areas of my life.

My version:

“If I could speak Spanish, Quechua, Aymata, and German perfectly, but I didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I could speak the perfect spiritual truth in to the lives of my patients and others, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans about whether my patients will heal and live and if I possessed all knowledge about the body, illness, and what is the underlying health and spiritual problem of my patients and those I encounter during the day, and if I had such faith that could just pray and the people are healed, but I didn’t love others, I would be nothing.  If I gave everything I have to the people of Peru and gave up 6 digit salaries in the US and even sacrificed my body by never sleeping or resting and just care for the people, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”

And how does this “love” that it the only thing that God asks from us look?

When I’m truly living and serving with this kind of “love” I’m: “patient and kind. Never jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  I never demand my own way.  I’m not irritable, and never remember who’s wronged me.  I don’t rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out.  I never give up even though I keep failing, never lose faith (even when though my friends no show me all the time and frequently don’t follow through on their word), I’m always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance of fatigue, over working, and call.”