The Speed of Love

To-day the Lord blessed me with joy. He really lifted me out of the valley, and despite people in work trying to ruin this joy filled day I managed to finish work still joyful.

My life, in and around work is currently operating at 150 MPH. No time to think, no time to reflect, only WORK. The mantra seems to be 'pace pace pace'. Sometime it changes to 'speed speed speed'. Apparently there are sections in Montana in the USA that defines the speed limit on the roads by words not numbers. Drivers are asked to drive at a speed that is 'reasonable and prudent'. One motorist was clocked doing 150MPH. The same speed as my work life.

Now those that really know me, know that I like to think about things. I like to ruminate, to chew the cud, to take my time, before leaping into action. Well! not really leaping more lurching into action.

Now! I am not so laid back that I am horizontal, but as I said I am working at the fastest pace I have every done in my 43 years of work experience. At lunch time to-day I had to 'dash out' from a 'webex' meeting (internet based conference call) with my boss who was in Indianapolis in the US to do a second talk following on from last weeks talk (12th March) to a small Christian fellowship group in work. As I was going up the stairs I said a quick prayer to the Lord that he would quieten my mind and my heart, slow me down was the real plea. I was still operating at speed, my mind not focused on the talk, it would be considered neither 'reasonable and prudent' that I gave this talk in that frame of mind. But the Lord did quieten my mind and the talk went ahead.

The talk was the second part of a review I was doing on a book entitled "I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt", by Vince Antonucci. As I was going through my the review I was struck, or should I correctly say the Lord 'focused' my mind upon a small portion of this book. It was all about 'SPEED' to be precise 'GOD's SPEED'.

I can 'influence' the speed of my work life, but I realised that I can control the speed of my life outside work. No one else sets my speed limit outside work. The Lord asks us to go to a quite place, a meeting place were we can abide with him. You cannot abide at a fast pace, it is too frenetic.

Even though the Lord was extremely busy, the bible tells us that he made time to pray to his father, made time to stop and heal people, made time to produce an environments where people loved to be in his presence such as the time where Mary could sit at his feet, while Martha was 'busy' preparing food. We know who the Lord commended, for their actions and it wasn't the one being busy (can you imagine Martha cooking for a house full of people with no help, 'speed speed speed, pace pace pace' must have been one of her concerns hence her 'request' for help).

So what is God's speed? A Japanese theologian called Kosuke Koyama wrote:

God walks "slowly" because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. it is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed..... It goes on in the depth of our life whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.

Jesus said "Follow me". I am doing 150MPH in one direction and the Lord is saying follow in my footsteps, abide with me. I need to slow down and walk at the Lord's speed. I need to stroll at 3 MPH the speed of love, the speed of calm reflection, in the footsteps and by default in the direction the Lord is leading at a speed set by God to true LIFE.


Finally ........... a thought for to-day

A cubicle in work can seem like a padded cell without a door. (Prayer and mediation on the Lord frees us from bondage and captivity)