To help us remember what it is that we are doing here with Love 40 days, here is a quote from C.S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses:
If you asked 20 good [persons] today what they thought the highest of the virtues, 19 of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old [they] would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has a lot to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.
We are drawing towards the end of Lent now - on the final stretch - and hopefully the opportunity to practice loving one another has helped us draw closer to God in a new way. Lent is traditionally the remembrance of Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness, fasting, praying and withstanding temptation. It is all about sacrifice. Love 40 days will have been a sacrifice for you in some way - the sacrifice of freedom, of putting yourself first, of giving time to pray and read this blog! But you are also seeking to put something of Jesus in where you are seeking to put something of yourself out...
We have spent a great deal of time over the past weeks thinking about what Lewis terms the Christian virtue of Love - try to spend time today praying about whatever it is that God is speaking to you about from Lewis's challenge. If you spent time thinking about the virtues of 1 Corinthians 13 at the beginning of this challenge, maybe revisit some of the words today to remind you of the calling that God has given you...
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