In his richly instructive messages to the church in Corinth the Apostle Paul endeavors to lift the thoughts and lives of those early Christians to a higher spiritual level. After pointing out in vivid analogy the need for each of the various kinds of workers and their dependence on one another, he encourages them all to seek the highest spiritual talents. As if to explain how this is to be done, he writes (I Cor. 12: 31), "Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." Then he delivers his incomparably beautiful discourse on charity, or love, found in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians.
To reflect Love, God, is indeed the "more excellent way" in every experience, under every condition. It is the healing way, the holy way, that works as God works and gains the reward He bestows. It is the way of self-abnegation, of complete consecration to divine Principle, of prayerful listening and obedience to God's direction. There is no true success without love; there is no possibility of failure with it.
Are we ever confronted with what seems to be an intolerable situation, where we feel that we must take matters into our own hands and direct their outcome? There is a "more excellent way." The patient, untiring willingness to be led by Love will produce a more harmonious outcome than any amount of self-will. There is nothing lost, but much gained, when we sacrifice our willful desires upon the altar of Love.
