I received this text as I set off for Diocesan Synod, where among other things we discussed the responsibility of all church members to vote and vote wisely in the forthcoming General Election. An amended motion asked us to consider issues of poverty and social exclusion when we vote. I found myself thinking this is a way of loving our neighbour. I guess we often vote selfishly, to suit ourselves and our own interests. But maybe we are called to vote with our neighbours in the poorest parts of the world in mind as well as ourselves. By doing this we shall (all) live.

Richard Dawkins is in Australia at the moment spreading his aethistic religion while denying us ours. I am finding it hard to love him. if only he could see his future in eternity but we live by faith and he has his. Still i find it hard.

We do need to learn to love ourselves as God does.  I find this so hard because I don’t love myself.  I find it easier to love other people.  However, I did make a list of the things I like about myself and I was quite surprised at what I had found.  I did this challenge today with my husband, who is not a Christian, so it’s very interesting to get feedback from him.  But when it came to this question of liking yourself, he said he could find nothing.  I found this very hard and tried to encourage him.  How much harder for him because he doesn’t have God in his life.

In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”.  If I am to treat my enemies this way, how much easier it should be to do this for my neighbours.  Maybe I could make a start by finding a bit more time to pray for them.

We do need to learn to love ourselves as God does.  I find this so hard because I don’t love myself.  I find it easier to love other people.  However, I did make a list of the things I like about myself and I was quite surprised at what I had found.  I did this challenge today with my husband, who is not a Christian, so it’s very interesting to get feedback from him.  But when it came to this question of liking yourself, he said he could find nothing.  I found this very hard and tried to encourage him.  How much harder for him because he doesn’t have God in his life.

We often find it hard tob love ourselves because we are too quick to see the faults and not quick enough to see how wonderfully we are made in the image of God. In this there is a lesson for loving our neighbour - who in the global village could very well be one we would regard as an enemy. We need to see our neighbour as an individual made and loved by God

Linking today’s and yesterday’s texts, which are already scripturally and Christologically linked, is Leigh Hunt’s 1838 poem ‘Abou Ben Adhem’(find this by ‘googling’). Hunt, a deeply religious Christain used a Muslim legend, based on an historical Muslim, as the source for his poem. It thus reflects the universality of love as undergirding the Abrahamic (and other) religions. This should spur us to engage in interfaith understanding (ie being people who practice love for God by loving our fellow men, even when beliefs may differ) for a better world at both a personal and national level.

Love is always an action word to me & I was thinking about the Mother Theresa’s work amongst the world’s poorest people - who are all our neighbours. So I did a websearch & found a charity: ‘With Love In Action UK’. “By sponsoring one of Dr. Job’s orphan girl’s, who’s suffered so much in her young life already, you’ll be helping to give her a new life, hope and a future. From as little as £15 per month, you can help deliver a miracle today!Our question and the question of the children is WILL YOU”?
If anyone else feels the call to love in this way, here’s the url: http://www.hope4orphans.co.uk

In order to put this into practice we need to try to love ourselves as God loves us.  God made us as we are, with all our weaknesses and faults.  It is through our weakness that we need God, as a child needs its mother and father, and through this a loving relationship is formed.  Modern society encourages a striving towards an idealistic perception of the perfect human being, but God wants us to learn to love ourselves as we are, warts and all.

This is a great challenge and should help us to see the world as a community of people, who are interdependent. It is imperative to meet people where they are. This is a hard task: but, with God, all things are possible. We must trust him, for I believe that is the only real way forward for humanity.

What a great picture to go with today’s verse!  I shall reflect on this as I start the day.