Love
“Spirit of God descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth, through all it’s pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, strength to me impart,
And make me love you as I ought to love.”
The language of prayer has to be clear, not because the hearer cannot grasp the desire of the vague but hoping heart, but because the one who voices prayer wants to arrange life in the hope that such prayer be fulfilling.
What would it mean to have one’s heart weaned from earth? Earth suckles through the food it yields. Earth provides the raw material for shelter and comfort and pleasure. Or be weaned from earth might suggest defiance, an arrogant desire for mastery. It need not.
What we hope for today is that defiance and arrogance, marks of being bound to earth rather than moved by hope, are what would disappear. In their place are to come spiritual, that is, Spirit-derived, impulses moving through our human impulses.
The hopeful human spirit needs to soar, as great arches do; to be translucent and open, as windows can be; to be grounded, as pillars and foundations that provide bases and solidity are. The mortar in all of this structure of spirit, says the voices of all who hope, is love.
“Make me love you as I ought to love you”. An aged preacher once admitted that he wished to take back a lifetime of his sermons. “I always had said you’ve got to love God. I had it all wrong. Good news, after Jesus’ work, is you get to love.” We get to love today as we ought to love.
Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:13-25