For a while I have been rethinking love. Now not the romantic type, I've been told I'm
a genius at that, I'm talking about the variety that is primarily of practical
use. The type that moves with courage
beyond the heart and head and reaches into ones hands and feet. The type without agenda or gain that costs
its giver and for which there will be no return expected.
This type of love I believe to be a scarce commodity. It’s a love I have often read about and
aspired to demonstrate. As I think on it
I reflect on a morning where I visited a colleague who was running a youth
centre in Portadown. It was a bright,
fresh but brisk spring morning. The type
that was nice to look at but not sit out in.
The centre was locked up and I assumed that my colleague was running late. As I stood on the footpath of the busy road
and surveyed my surroundings I spied out of the corner of my eye in the
distance two men sat on the cold tarmac talking. You see close to the premises is a bridge where
local homeless and often alcoholic people hang out. My friend had seen one lying out, drunk and
in a very poor way. Instead of judging
or fearing him, a response that certainly would be no stranger to most of us, he
was spending time with him. He wasn't
sharing religious head knowledge with him, but instead through his compassion
and presence demonstrating the heartbeat of Jesus. He wasn't trying to change him or move him on
but befriend and care for him.
Admittedly this is a large weighty example that demonstrates
the form of love I'm talking about. An
expression of love higher than most have witnessed never mind given, but where
did it come from and why is it not more prominent in our day to day experience
and lives?
If I may, I also want to look at the smaller but more
frequent daily demands of this type of love and suggest that this is where
perhaps it may get even harder! I have
often succeeded in the large type gestures of this love whilst failing at the
daily humdrum requirements of it that perhaps are more important. You know what I'm talking about, doing the
bit of DIY that needs done and that would make life so much easier for all
concerned. The old lady in church who
would bore you senseless with her chatter but for whom has had no-one to talk
with all week. The youth project that
needs an evening of your help. The family member that needs a little more
patience and time than you are prepared to sacrifice… and so it goes on…
I want this love to flow through my veins, to consume my
thoughts and own my heart. Here but lies
the issue I want so often to feel it first but not to have to intentionally choose
it. This type of love is not about
feelings, it’s about sacrificial choice and that requires courage, discipline
and focus. For the owner of it this love
can be as fragile as a candle in the wind.
Its flame can be extinguished all too easily! To be common place in ones life this love
needs to be nurtured and protected and its source recognised. The source of it is not natural but
spiritual. To consistently demonstrate
this type of revolutionary love in your life it needs to come from the overflow
of the heart, a heart in tune with God, surrendered to him and shaped by him. Who owns your heart? What are you doing to nurture,
grow and protect His love inside of you?
I know for me the answer is a simple one – I'm not doing enough!
