All you need is love, love is all you need 

By Sammy Jordan, Project Lead Hope for Every Home

In February the shops and adverts are full of love. Here Sammy explores how love is not just for Valentines Day; but rather how love can fuel prayer and prepare the ground for mission.


In February, supermarket aisles turn red, pink and heart shaped. The supermarket seasonal aisle is one of my cultural reference points because it signals what people are immersed in; what’s already in the popular psyche? I then consider what the invitation is; what is it that the church can offer, that builds a bridge between the cultural reference point (or supermarket aisle) and faith? Living on a new estate where I try to be good news as I live with, love and serve my neighbours, that’s the question I’m asking myself this February as Valentine’s Day approaches.

I’m not actually a big fan of Valentine’s Day. Dramatic gestures of affection are not my thing; but love is. There are lots of people who won’t receive cards, flowers or chocolates on February 14th, but I’d love everyone to know that they are loved. I can’t help thinking how different the world would be if everyone knew who and whose they are; that their identity is that of a child of God who says to us, ‘You are my beloved child’. If it was love that shaped us, rather than looks, money, ability, skills, and social-media-skewed perspectives of self-worth; the world would be transformed!

So many songs tell us that it’s all about love. As I write this, I have the Beetles song, ‘All You Need Is Love…. Love is All You Need’ in my head. That was written before I was born but a quick Google search suggests that love is the most common theme for songs, poems and stories. It seems that whilst the world and culture change, the importance of love doesn’t. Maybe love is all we need…and want.

Love is at the heart of our year of mission. We love because of who first loved us. But, we can’t export and give away what we do not have in the first place. I think God is calling his church, his people, back to their first love, back to a relationship of love. We need to fall in love with Jesus all over again, to experience the overwhelming love of God, of a God who has, does and will love us with an unshakeable, infinite love. Only then, when we’re overwhelmed by God’s love for ourselves, do we have something to share and give away.

But what if people aren’t ready to receive that love? I wonder if we need to prepare the ground first. I live on an estate with a high proportion of social housing. Beneath the veneer of new, freshly-painted houses, lie many of the issues people face in their daily lives. I have neighbours with long term health conditions, caring for family members, facing the challenge of unemployment, living with anxiety, impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and waiting to access mental health support. It occurs to me that when a people face challenges which involves waiting for broken or stretched systems to meet their needs, it’s easy to feel that things are done to you, to be robbed of agency and with it; confidence and dignity.

So, before I can tell anyone that they are loved, not only do I have to love them but often I have to prepare the ground by helping people to feel worthy of love…restoring confidence, dignity and agency. This is where my brown bananas come in; last year the community group I chair set up a community fridge for our estate. It was intended to reduce food waste, but it was also to increase community engagement by giving people an easy way to get involved and feel like they are contributing. It seems to me that lots of people might have two brown bananas at one time or another, one to eat that day and maybe one to give away…to our community fridge!

My challenge before I tell or show someone they are loved, is to help them feel loveable by providing easy ways of making a difference, getting involved, restoring agency, dignity and confidence.
 
This month, as people’s minds are filled with thoughts of love by the red, white and pink
supermarket aisles, can we be more intentional about loving our non-Christian friends and
neighbours?
 
Hope’s United Year of Mission starts with prayer. There’s no point planning a
mission until we’ve heard what God wants to say. Prayer prepares the ground for the seeds
of mission. So, this February can I invite you to pray as an act of love? Here are some pointers to get you started:
 
How might God be asking you to prepare the ground by helping people in your community feel loveable?
Pray for five friends and neighbours who don’t yet know Jesus.
Pray for your community. You might want to prayer walk the area where you live praying for the homes, schools, shops, offices along the way.



Download the OIKOS app to help you! This free app helps you to plot where you have prayed and there are resources from our partners at Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, the Discover Bible app and others which can help you too. If you’ve never prayed for your community before, check out this great video from our partners at Local Houses of Prayer.

If you’re not sure how to pray for your non-Christian friends and community then speaking a blessing over them is a great way to start. Blessing is asking God for his kingdom to come. It’s asking God for the shalom, wellbeing and flourishing of his kingdom to come to our streets and everyday spheres. It’s asking what are the good things that God wants for your local area?’ Listen to God’s heart and then pray into it. God is a God of love and transformation, knowing our local areas, knowing the needs, what work of love and transformation, what Kingdom work, do we want to ask God for? Healing for the sick, food for the hungry, peace for the fearful, joy for the sad.

Lisa Hutt and Wendy Thomas from Neighbourhood Prayer Network have resources to help you with this. You might also want to use The Father’s Love Letter with your community www.fathersloveletter.com For Wendy and Lisa, love and blessing are intertwined. I particularly love how they then link this with repentance, because as you speak words of blessing it becomes difficult to hold onto any bitterness.

So, in the midst of so much in the world that is stressful, volatile, challenging, uncertain and dark, let’s be counter-cultural and embrace opportunities to love because, in the words of another love song, ‘Love, love changes everything…’ That’s the love we have to share. A love that changes everything because it gave everything…for love.