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Love Is the Highest Intelligence – The Formed Future · Still, Here

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is still here.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet moment to remember what is true.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1 through 3.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I speak with the languages of men and of angels,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: but don't have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but don't have love, I am nothing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I give away all my goods to feed the poor and if I give my body to be burned
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: but don't have love, it profits me nothing.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Paul gives us a picture that still unsettles us.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: A person can speak with power,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: understand mysteries,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: hold knowledge, exercise faith, give generously, and even suffer greatly.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, when love is absent, all that brilliance collapses into noise.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is a hard word for any age that prizes talent.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It may be an even harder word for a future shaped by intelligence,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: speed, Technology, Creativity, and Access to Knowledge.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: We can become impressed by capacity and forget the deeper question.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: What is this capacity serving?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Love is the highest intelligence because love gives every gift its proper aim.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Speech needs love or words become performance.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge needs love or insight becomes superiority.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity needs love or beauty becomes self-display.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Technology needs love or tools begin to serve power,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: profit, and efficiency while people fade from view.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Love is more than a pleasant feeling added after the work is done.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Love is the energy that moves holy work toward life.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: We love to create, so we create from the energy love gives us.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: We love to learn, so we learn in order to serve.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We love people, so we use our words, tools, time, attention, and skill for their good.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, stay with one question today.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where is love leading this gift?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: You do not need to diminish what you can do.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: You do not need to distrust your intelligence, creativity, or skill.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Offer them to Christ.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let love give them direction.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most faithful use of your ability today will be quieter than you expected.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps love will slow you down.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it will change the tone of a message,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: the purpose of a decision, or the way you use a tool.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let that be enough.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The future does not merely need capable people.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It needs people whose capabilities have been warmed and guided by love.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Take a moment for this prayer of presence.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, amen.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Fill my gifts with your love.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Keep my words, knowledge, creativity, and work from becoming noise.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let love give direction to what I create, say, learn, and do.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Bend my life toward you and toward the people you ask me to love.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: As you rise from this quiet moment, carry this prayer with you.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Fill my gifts with love.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let love guide what I create.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Fill my gifts with love.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let love guide what I create.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fill my gifts with love.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let love guide what I create.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Fill my gifts with love.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let love guide what I create.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay steady, stay open, stay present.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You are still here.