My Two Cents

Reflections on Lindisfarne Understanding Number 3:

“3. Love is to be at the heart of the Lindisfarne Community. “Love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies. The immensity of the task makes it naturally impossible! Yet we are called to be a community of love. We need to remember, it is God's love, not ours; perfect, eternal, constant. With God's love there are no strings attached, no conditions to be met, no favoritism. Yet it is not sentimental nor romantic, for love is not merely a feeling, it is an act of will; the “naked intent” of the heart to love God, neighbor and enemy. There is the deepest of all joy in the love of God. We seek to learn to love, to walk in love, to exult in love, to make love our highest aim, to let God's love fill us completely. Our desire is to be free within the love of our heavenly Father-Mother --- to know God's passionate love for us and to live our lives from within God's acceptance of us. This love of God is reflected in our love for all, even those who are considered our enemies. It is a reconciling love; a love that seeks peace. It is a love for the whole of creation.”

#3

Love, Love, Love. "Love is a stance, the place I take my stand." I believe that love is something that we can screw up just like we can anything else. I try (especially when engaging in a practice like this one of "reflection") not to think too much. Instead I start with my tried and true understanding that I have the ability to recognize love when I see it and most certainly when I experience it. So I stopped and visualized that. What does love look like? What do people act like when they love? Hoo boy, what I got set me back in my chair shaking my head.

 Love eschews control. It plays no favorites. It makes people smile. It creates affinity. It comes easy, with no strain. It has no power, and does not resist evil. On the surface, it seems that Love is easy to overwhelm, defeat, ignore, or destroy, but that isn't so.

 I am reminded of a passage in the Tao te Ching:

"The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. The ten-thousand things depend upon it; it holds nothing back. It fulfills its purpose silently and makes no claim. It nourishes the ten thousand things, and yet is not their lord. It has no aim; it is very small. The ten thousand things return to it, yet it is not their lord. It is very great. It does not show greatness, and is therefore truly great." 

Then I followed the trail to this:

"4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends." 1 Corinthians 13

My understanding tells me that the key is this: Love is the greatest force in the universe. Our theology tells us that 'God is Love.' Therefore, it's foolish for us to try to manufacture Love in our own hearts. It's already there. We simply need to match the timing, and stop trying to push the river. Love is not an act, it is an acquiescence. It is not something you add on, but something you discover when you strip away.

Anyway, my 2 cents.