Dear Friends,
Richard Rolle, a 14th Century English Christian, wrote,
‘for to love and to be loved is the sweetest activity of all human life’.
Rolle was a man of prayer, a lover of God in an age of anxiety. Despite the harshness of Medieval English life Rolle’s faith was captivated by love; the love of God and a love for God. Love is the deepest human need, more vital than bread and water, the body may perish from lack of food or water but worse, our soul withers through lack of love.
Whilst every modern pop song since the mid 1950’s tells us life is perfected by the love of this girl or that boy, it’s not true. What we really and truly need is the perfect love of God. I’m not saying that we don’t require the love of other humans too, we do; the love of others helps us understand our lovability and practice being loving. The Bible asks us, how can we say that we love God whom we don’t see when we can’t love those we do see? (1 John 4:20). Yet, our human loving relationship are signposts to the one that matters most, God. God is love (1 John 4:8) and we are created in God’s image, therefore love is at the heart of God and his creation.
Throughout the millennia of the church, the Holy Spirit has sometimes been called the Fire of Love. As we draw near to Pentecost, we remember that the Holy Spirit settled as tongues of fire on the heads of the Christians, marking God’s love and favour being poured upon the church and empowering them to reach the world.
So, let’s take the opportunity to receive the love God wants to lavish upon us and find ways to then put that into practice.
Every blessing
Gavin