Day 18 | Love Wins

Reflection

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a train more packed than it was that day – basically a tin of sardines on wheels. And the sardines were massive. Most of the passengers were on their way to a rugby match and looked like they could more than hold their own in a scrum.

At the next stop, when the doors opened, no fresh light or air flowed in. The doorway was blocked by five of the largest humans God has ever made. Waiting to get on the train, on the other side of this wall of muscle, was a woman with a pushchair. I’m thinking, ‘No chance!’

‘Move out of the way,’ she berated the giants. Twenty seconds later, with the laws of physics broken, this mother and her child were in the carriage, on their way home. I wondered to myself, ‘Is this lady just freakishly confident, or is it the love she has for her child that helped her just then?’

Love for another can do crazy things. In 1 Samuel 20, Jonathan, the crown prince of Israel, loved his friend David so much that he was willing to commit treason by helping David escape the country – because the king was trying to kill him. Jonathan remained confident in a situation where he had so much to lose: his family, his influence, his position, and even his life.

We all have situations on our frontlines for which we need confidence. Sometimes a source of confidence might be found in the love we have, and the love God gives us, for the people around us. Maybe we’ll find ourselves loving people so much we care more about doing what’s good for them, and less about what people might think of us.

Responding in prayer

Loving Father, just as You have loved me, help me to love others.

Give me a love more powerful than my fear.

And in that love, may I be confident.