Life is ... Love

So today is Day 2 of our Spring Harvest 2011, Week 3 Minehead. It is so exciting and amazing to be here, despite the nerve rackingly long drive to get here, and I’m really looking forward to hearing what God wants me to learn this week. 

The theme this week is Route 66. It is about exploring the Bible and the claims we make about it. Using four key metaphors.

The metaphor for todays teaching is the Scripture is a Sonnet.  The Oxford dictionary definition is:

Sonnet (n.). A poem of fourteen lines, using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes.

A sonnet takes knowledge, authority and inspiration to write. There is always a voice at the heart of a sonnet and very often what they speak is love.

Love

Pedro Arrupe said:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

This brings me back to when I first came to Spring Harvest. I wasn’t really a Christian when I first came to Spring Harvest; I came with the youth group from my local church, The Brent Methodist. It astounds me how my life has changed since then. How he has turned my life around and got me back on track. How he healed my scars, even the literal ones, and gave me hope.

On my third time at Spring Harvest something happened to me that really kicked me into gear and made me realize who I am. I was walking back from the evening worship and I just could not stop singing, I was so happy! 

Have you seen the cup a soup advert before with the blue hug? Well that’s how I felt, like I was being hugged all over, embraced with love. My heart was just so full of love and happiness more than how I felt with or towards my first love, more than I’ve felt towards a friend, or family member.  More than I have ever felt, ever.

And as I sat there, listening to the waves crashing against the shore in the background, singing at the top of my voice things just made sense. I realized it was ok to love myself, because God loves me! And as if it was something out of a movie, fireworks started to go of in the night sky.

I was able to make changes in my life, my addictions slowly ceased, my scars from self-harm disappeared, my confidence increased. I was ready to live.

Because life is about love. God’s love.

Like Pedro Arrupe says, fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

So back to todays message, the scripture as sonnet, a love song, composed by the creator, inspired by the almighty.

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”

John 3:16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son.”

So when ever we need to remember that God loves us all we need to do is turn to His Word, and pray that He will show us His love and He will. 

ty G x