Only By Love Is Love Awaked
In a South London neighbourhood is the following phrase painted on a brick wall:
Nothing for myself that is not also for others.
It sits boldly in its humble font, the Shard climbing to the heavens in the background in stark contrast. It's a reminder that we're all trying to climb higher and higher, without realising that each human life is valuable and our successes should be collective successes. It burdens me daily living in a huge, sprawling city where the buildings are amazing but the human degradation is rife. Humility in a city like this is hard. But it's needed. Oh, it's needed.
And then along came another tragedy in Orlando. Another day, another heartbreaking story of how humans can't get themselves together. And here's the thing: we can't get ourselves together. We never could. Our triumphs, our achievements, our moments of piety - they're not our own. They're not solely of our own effort. We are made to be assisting, and we are daily assisted.
The good news is this: that there is someone that can help us reassemble the pieces and know our full potential, and most importantly - know love. Because look at society's achievements - our advances, our cities, our inventions, our technology. Our compassion. And look at our sorrow, the convenience we have of picking when we will show love and when we won't. Look at the selfish endeavours that we all chase. I'm not picking out our short-fallings, but I am saying friend - there is something better.
We may argue what constitutes a "good life" - what constitutes "moral" (though let's admit, the concept of morality in our society is so bamboozled and perpetually changing that it has no real mooring or dependability). But what happens when you're not a well off White man from Oxford University with several books out and you're Habib, a Sudanese refugee in Calais whose paintings can be transported across borders to sit in an East London gallery, whilst He cannot even leave the dingy reality of the Calais Jungle. What happens when you're a young woman being trafficked for pornography and prostitution. What happens when you're smuggled across borders between Nepal and India to be sold for a pittance into slavery? Let's not sit on the side of the fence where everything's ace when we have it our way. Because some people don't have it their way at all, and whilst we're sinking craft beers on a friday night and trapped behind the glow of our iPhone screens, they're in sinking boats on the Mediterranean and trapped in dingy, infested camps clinging onto their faith and the goodness of those that give a damn. The goodness of their God
It's time to give a damn. The shootings in Orlando are awful. Who, in the name of God (who is Love and the Creator and Perpetuator of it (1 John 4:8), decides to murder others created in His image? "SMH" (shaking my head) doesn't even begin to arrive at the response that we are all having to this issue. We're so twisted with disgust and our hearts cry out. We are all aware that this world is in agony. The disparity between rich and poor, the residual issues of White supremacy, the wars, rumours of wars, the fear, and most importantly - the way in which we've managed to zone out from it all.
Every single tragedy in our world is a residual of humanity's problem. And the problem is simply this: we don't know what love is, and who God truly is, so we either toss the concept of a a perfect love and God aside entirely, or we say "this megalomaniac" is not someone I want to serve. And too right. Absolutely. If God isn't Love, I want nothing to do with Him.
Turns out He is love, and in every tragedy and equally every moment of compassion, He's calling your name. He's beckoning you to rise up in love and in action not "against evil" but "for love." Every action of selfless love that a human carries out is a reflection of God's character - we are made to reflect, create, and perpetuate love. So let's start acting like it.
Don't get me wrong - Religion can be wrong - our interpretations and our manifestations of our beliefs can go awfully awry (hello entirety of Western civilisation's history how are you, little matey?) but if you're seeking for the perfect love - the desire of the nations, then it is found beautifully in the truth that yes - Religion can be wrong, but God cannot. He (they) is the ultimate manifestation of one-ness. And this is the good news - this is the ultimate idea of the Gospel - that we may all be one, as God is one. (John 17:22).
You were created out of a desire for God to be able to love more. Your existence is a product of love. Love created life, and it continues to. Let's put opinions, judgment and condemnation aside and let's start talking. We need to stop avoiding the responsibility that mankind has which is to love in truth, humility and kindness. To be reflectors of a Light and Love that all of our hearts endlessly crave.
Let's talk. Let's listen. Let's love.
