“God’s Exquisite Love!” How exquisite your love, O God! And those who seek your wide wings’ shelter— They feast on the abundance of your house They drink the delights of your streams For you are a fountain of cascading light, You are the light within the light. -Psalm 36 Over the weeks of Lent, I have been writing this weekly e-letter reflecting on our lives as they relate to God’s Exquisite Love, the opening of our hearts to the love and compassion that God is always offering us. This is the fourth in that series. Today, I ask you to consider some words concerning love and efficiency spoken by my friend Jerry May. Jerry died about a year ago. He was the author of many books, including “The Awakened Heart,” from which the ideas below are taken. He was a wonderful friend and mentor. Jerry writes:

One of the most profound struggles we face in our culture today is between efficiency and love. Efficiency is how we cope with our daily tasks, how we get our jobs done, how we manage our relationships and handle our feelings and adjust to the stresses we encounter. Efficiency has to do with how we function.

In contrast, love has to do with our deepest desires, what we are functioning for, what brings real meaning to our lives, real nourishment for our hearts. Efficiency is the how of life; Love is the why. We all know people who are very efficient but not very loving. We also know people who are very loving but not very efficient.

God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament are unequivocal about love being the most important thing in life -- love is where we come from and where we are meant to be heading. Love is the one thing necessary; we are here on this earth for the sole purpose of furthering and deepening love: for God and for one another. What are the two great commandments? That we love God with our whole being and our neighbors as our very selves. Such a thing may seem impossible -- and it surely is without grace, but there is no equivocation in it. There is no compromise. The eighteenth century poet William Blake said it well in these words: "And we are put on earth a little space, that we might learn to bear the beams of love."

The scriptures keep saying in countless other ways that our functioning should be determined by our deeper passion for love; our efficiency should be in the service of love. But our culture, for generations, for millennia in fact, has reversed these priorities. The spiritual heart, grounded and loving in love, is a radical challenge that must go against the idolatry of function. It must risk being inefficient sometimes in the cause of love. It must risk vulnerability for love and to love. It is, as the apostle Paul said, "Foolishness" in the eyes of the world. Jerry’s words are very interesting. This week we continue our Lenten investigation of God’s Exquisite Love and participate in our church’s Annual Meeting. This week we will have an opportunity to practice what Jerry is talking about, what we preach here. It is my hope that we will have a wonderful, efficient Annual Meeting, and that we will continue to operate the business of the church in a clear, transparent and efficient manner. Further, it is my prayer that the business that we transact here at the church might be fully and completely in the service of love. Love, David