Why We Walk
Oct. 8th, 2009 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrIt's a week until the Philadelphia Breast Cancer 3-Day. A week until my wife, my college friend Sandy, and I will walk sixty miles rain or shine, along with several thousand new friends... every one of whom had to raise a minimum of $2,300 to take part. Every one of them is walking for a reason. It varies from person to person, but in the end, it comes down to this:
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
(1 Corinthians 13)
We walk because we have faith that a cure can be found and that we can make a difference with the funds we raise and the awareness we help create. We walk because we have hope. We have hope that with each passing year we will find ourselves attending fewer funerals and celebrating more survivors. But most of all, we walk because of love. It may rain and pour on us every step of the way, and we may be soaked to the bone, but we won't care. Love always hopes, love always trusts, and love perseveres.
And so we will we.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
(1 Corinthians 13)
We walk because we have faith that a cure can be found and that we can make a difference with the funds we raise and the awareness we help create. We walk because we have hope. We have hope that with each passing year we will find ourselves attending fewer funerals and celebrating more survivors. But most of all, we walk because of love. It may rain and pour on us every step of the way, and we may be soaked to the bone, but we won't care. Love always hopes, love always trusts, and love perseveres.
And so we will we.
