Love Never Fails Ken Canedo, Jesse Manibusan	(Based on 4 votes)

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Lyrics

Text: Based on 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 4-8b, 11. Text and music © 2001, 2002, Ken Canedo and Jesse Manibusan. Published by spiritandsong.com®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved.

Artist Reflection

To speak of LOVE NEVER FAILS is to speak of more than a song. One must speak of Jesus, St. Paul, and Ken Canedo. I'll begin with Ken Canedo. Ken is my friend and colleague. We met several years ago when we were preparing the music for a National Deaconate Conference. Ken was at St. Monica in Moraga, CA and I was at St. Barnabas in Alameda, CA. We'd dreamed about writing together, and possibly recording a project together. I'd go over to Ken's house, then Ken would come to my house. In those visits we'd share what we had written, offer a suggestion here and there, help create a bridge or adjust a hook. It was work, but it was pure fun. Ken and I continued writing together, but then the unimaginable occurred. He moved to Portland, Oregon, and I moved to Texas. Yikes.

LOVE NEVER FAILS is clearly a Ken Canedo song. I may have added a little here or there, but Ken is the guy. When Ken shared the song with me, he mentioned that we only hear this passage from Saint Paul, maybe once every three years at Sunday Mass, and the rest of the time, at weddings. I imagine that Saint Paul was hoping to convey to the early church in Corinth the power and character of God's love for us and the love to which we're called to be; patient, kind, not jealous or rude, but trusting and hospitable, not self-seeking but God-seeking. Ken has managed to take Saint Paul's powerful love letter from God, and musically frame it in a powerful new way.

Saint Paul wasn't always a saint. Before he met Jesus, he was "Saul," a powerful and passionate leader in the anti-Jesus movement of the day. Saul was anything but patient and kind. If anything, Saul's gift of power and influence was used for cruelty and the violent oppression of the followers of Jesus.

Well, Saul's life is interrupted by the risen Christ, and everything changed. After his fall, Saul becomes Paul, and Paul becomes more than he'd ever imagined. His whole vision for his life changes. Paul understands that any gift he's been given, means absolutely nothing if he doesn't have Love. Any gift we've been given must be received and given to others in Love. Money, influence, status, GPA, relationships, and everything else under the sun. If love isn't where we begin, then it's all just smoke and mirrors. No matter what we accomplish, without love, nothing is accomplished. We receive nothing when we serve ourselves. It's so weird. When we serve others in truth and in love... we're the ones who are blessed! We're the ones who are transformed.

That's the way it is when we've been touched by Christ. We're changed. It's like God saying, "I'm it." Then God tags us, and "we're it." Well, along the way, Ken Canedo got tagged, and then tagged me. And now I tag you. Open your heart. Tag. You're loved. And now you're "it."

In the Love that never fails,
-- Jesse Manibusan