My whole aim in life really is to give everyone I meet riches beyond measure. I am a very rich person. I have so much treasure, even if I was successful in giving it away to every person I ever met my own treasury would not dry up.
I read recently that Ghandi is reported to have said, “Become the change you want to see.†I thought about this and I decided what I really liked seeing was generosity. Along with hospitality it is a beautiful gift that we just don’t see enough of. As I reflected I realised that God is generous beyond measure. As creator his generosity is seen in that he does not simply create, but he gives creation away. He made us so that we can create. Humanity, even nature, trees and animals are never merely functional, we have the capacity to create more. Through relationship with others, which is in effect through relationship with God, we can procreate. Through awareness of our surroundings we become creative, art, music, dance, architecture, gardening….. all of these are expressions of the creativity God so richly blessed us with. I could go on and say how God is creative as both redeemer and sustainer, but I’ll allow you to be creative and think those thoughts for yourself!
Of course I am not God, and my earthly generosity has limits. If I choose to give away too much time, I burn out. If I choose to give away too much money I become broke. It is only when I begin to think of giving away love that I am caught up in a different mathematics. Time and energy appear strictly limited, money and earthly gifts, run out and wear out. Love on the other hand seems to refresh itself. It is simply not the case that if you love there is a finite amount of it. The very act of love seems to be self-refreshing. The more I love the more I love, simple as! This is simply not the case with other emotions. Well at least not the case in a win-win way. Take hatred for example, or grief. It is true that the more we hate, or grieve, the more we grieve or hate. But these things rather than refreshing us, actually consume us. So that for most of us we reach a point where we simply cannot bear to hate or grieve anymore. Perhaps you think this can be the same with love, but I think this is a misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of love. If we misinterpret love as an attempt to possess or to control, or even to be loved back, then yes in that circumstance, to “love†can also consume and ultimately drain us. However where love is simply to set free, to let go, to see flourish, to delight in; then this love as the Bible says, never ends. For many of us, loving in this way does not seem to come easy. Rather as people have been miss-sold pensions, or insurance, we have been miss-sold devotion. Our society exchanges this beautiful love of which I speak, for a series of possessions or experiences. It slyly whispers in our ears, that a good holiday, a certain car, a particular friendship group, a range of possessions can actually match the beauty and fulfilment of love itself. In essence we allow the “gods†of this world to mask us to trick us away from that for which we were made: to love and be loved.
So what is the answer? Ummmhh simple really; to love and be loved! In this creative mathematics to which we are called, we are not even asked to love first to show ourselves worthy of being loved. The love of which I speak is lavished upon us from God. There is only one requirement on our part; to open the door. God is so generous in his love, so rich in his mercy that although he longs to love us, he creates us with free will and will not violate that will. If you choose to keep your heart closed, the love will remain forever all around you, but you will not be refreshed. God’s love will grieve for you, mourn for you, weep for you but only at your invitation will he fill you.
I wish I was more successful at giving away the treasure that I have. I would love to be able to persuade people to open the hatch of their heart and allow the soft, beautiful, healing mercy of the love of God to fill them. I will though keep trying, keep praying and keep hoping. I am also going to take Gandhi’s words to heart, and “become the change I want to see:†If God desires a relationship with others and with me, I am going to make sure that I open my own heart and let him fill me. Of course as I allow this a strange thing happens, I have so much love for others as well.
“Oh Lord, help me to express your love, this day and each day in words and actions that will really bless all those around me. Amenâ€
PS I have pretty much expressed the way that I understand the “Gospel†the good news of God’s love. I have done so without even mentioning Jesus. Mind you I don’t think that I could even imagine the love of which I speak, if I had not first “seen it†in him. For his is the story of true self giving love, redemptive love which simply goes on redeeming.
Stephen Newell
