Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God

I want to return to the subject of a recent post, to think more about one of the things Fr Greg had said. See "A Time to Pray"

Unfortunately I made "typo"that altered the meaning somewhat, I published "To love the way you want to love is control" (still unpacking that one! I think it is about making our love conditional, choosing to love)

I meant to type "To love the way you want to love is control" (still unpacking that one! I think it is about making our love unconditional, choosing to love).

The word unconditional makes a big difference... If we only love the loveable people we are doing an easy thing. But God is calling us to be disciples of love.

Of course love has many shades of meaning and we can use this almost to get out of doing too much about it. But authentic Christianity demands an authentic attempt to be as loving as Christ. And that is I think where choice comes in.

One Saint said that "to love is to will the good of another" and that can act as our working definition of love in this context. An elderly priest that I used to minister with was fond of saying to me "love means to treat everyone with good will." That is where the unconditional bit comes in. It is the challenging bit of do we treat the smelly tramp with respect even though he could be said to have not earnt respect. But maybe we start (or continue) at the easier end of the spectrum, with family and work colleagues. Thinking about not what they can do for you but what you can do for them. Then move on to the more radical. Of course every now and then someone will get in your face, when they do remember "that a soft answer turns away anger."

Giving up control is not easy. Let me assure you I am no saint. But I have learnt that when I do so it releases God's grace into my life, things start to be different. Less bleak in fact.

In the same way forgiveness also changes things. To refuse to store up wrongs in our memories and to keep "short accounts" changes the dynamics of our relationships.

Dear Lord, please help me to be different, help me to build your kingdom. To love tenderly and to give and receive forgiveness mercifully. Amen