Faith, Hope and Love

Yesterday I shared a brief little reflection--really just two sentences--about the difference between loving people and saving people, and how the gap between those two is often filled with grief.

Reflecting some more on this, beyond love I think there is also faith and hope.

Faith, hope and love are often described in the Christian tradition as the "Theological Virtues" because we generally think of them as having God as their object. But I also think that faith, hope, and love are the main ways we have of caring for each other. Faith, hope and love aren't just theological virtues, they are deeply human virtues.

Again, we can't save people, but we can love them. And a key part of loving is faithfulness, fidelity, endurance, and perseverance. We can't save people, but we can stay with them, walk with them, through hell and back. We can be faithful to each other.

In addition, while we cannot save, we can hope. We can keep pouring words of restoration, life, renewal, and resurrection into each other.

Faith, hope, and love.

These are the gifts we give to God, but also to each other.