Love is a Spiritual Practice

Coffee on the patio with Macrina Wiederkehr this morning.  It's slightly humid, but it's still nice to be outside.  There are some blue skies poking through the white puffy clouds and grey ones.  There are birds chirping and singing.  A breeze would take away the sticky humidity, but I don't mind right now while the temperature is 75 degrees. 

I picked up where I left off in Macrina Wiederkehr's Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God, page 149, in the middle of a chapter on love.  I have found this book, Abide, to be one that I chew slowly. Sometimes I won't make it through an entire chapter because I stop on something and reflect. Because it is so filling, I put it down for a while before I pick it up again.  I have been working my way through this book now for four years.  That's okay.  I'm in no hurry to soak up and soak in the good stuff.

"This Tremendous Love" is the chapter I had been reading.  As I picked up where I left off, I read these words: "Why not pray for compassion for those who have hurt us?  Compassion is good medicine." (149)  Yes, compassion IS good medicine.  I spent last week reflecting on compassion and doing compassion work in myself and for others with Frank Rogers as our guest speaker at the Fellowship of United Methodist Spiritual Directors and Retreat Leaders (Hearts on Fire) retreat. Compassion is fresh on my mind.  

"Love is a spiritual practice." (149)  Hmmm.... I've not considered love to be a spiritual practice before.  I don't think I've ever seen it in one of the "lists".  But then again, neither did I see blogging or contemplative photography and those have become spiritual practices for me.  I have seen journaling on the list and blogging is an online way of journaling.  But, love?!?!  How can love be a spiritual practice?  What does love have to do with the spiritual?!?!  I believe it has everything to do with the spiritual. If we don't have love, we have nothing.  If we don't learn to love, then we have missed the point.  If we can't love, then we cannot love God, our neighbor, or ourselves.  Love is everything.  Love IS a spiritual practice.

Macrina continues, "It doesn't happen automatically.  We have to practice loving." (149)  Just as we would practice any activity that we are learning to master, we must practice loving.  We must practice in order to build muscle memory and to learn what it feels like.  

Macrina offers a challenge, "What about opening our hearts to those who have wounded us? What about forgiving?  What about loving our enemies?  What about becoming who we really are?" (149)

These things require the practice of opening our heart, of becoming open and staying open-- to ourselves and to others.  

"Being and becoming take time, and commitment to stay open is at the very core of what it means to be a person." (Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk: Daring To Live An Authentic Life)

Practice love. Practice forgiveness. Practice compassion.

How are we growing in this spiritual practice? 

The Scripture passage that goes along with this chapter is Matthew 5:38-48. Here is version from The Message:

38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Read it through several times.  What captures your attention?  How are you challenged to become more loving?

Macrina encourages us: "This loving place really does exist in us.  It is from this place of freedom and peace that with practice in opening our hearts, we can turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, or hand over our cloak to the one who wants to borrow." (150)

She notes, "Nothing will ever bring us the peace we long for except God's love flowing through our being." (151)  Allowing God's love to flow through our being WILL bring us peace.  I am most at peace when God's love is flowing through me, to myself and to others.  

May we grow in our love towards God, others, and ourselves as we practice the spiritual practice of love.

Blessings on your journey, 

Debra