Recently I ran across a book by Kent Nerburn entitled Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. It is based on the famous internationally known prayer that has appeared in many languages beginning in 1912 and finally translated in English in 1929 in a Quaker magazine. There it was attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. In that translation, the expression “sow love” was used in a spiritual, unconditional way that seems to mean what we have come to recognize as agape.
This prayer study takes a spiritual understanding of the many life illustrations used throughout the book, as Nerburn said, the prayer “reminds us that we are the reed through which the breath of God is blown, the strings on which the music of God is played; our lives are music in the heart of God.” Wherever Nerburn used ‘love’ with the spiritual meaning that ‘agape’ was used in the Greek New Testament, I changed ‘love’ to ‘agape’ in the following quotes.
“Agape is a habit of the heart, an inclination of the spirit. Agape is something indwelling in our hearts. It only comes alive by being given. If we feel ourselves surrounded by loneliness, our first act should not be to call out for someone to give agape to us but to seek out someone or something on which to lavish agape. Only then will we break down the barriers of our own sense of isolation.
“The prayer challenges us from the very outset to stare hatred in the eye and trust in the power of agape to stand against it. This is no small challenge. It asks us to overcome our fear and to have faith in the power of goodness. It asks us to believe that agape is strong enough to take root in a field that seems choked with the weeds of hate.
“We must sow a seed of agape — if we plant a seed it will grow if it is tended and will soon become strong enough to stand in witness against the dark forces against which it is arrayed. If we take the chance and plant a seed of agape — a miracle can occur.
“If we can get someone who is filled with hate to make just the smallest of choices in favor of goodness and agape, we are moving their heart further from the path of darkness and further along the path of light. We have sowed the seed of agape in that empty place at the center of their heart, and though they may not notice, agape has taken root and begun to come alive.
“Agape is active and generative. Its seed must be planted if it is to grow. Agape has no judgment; it is not conditional. It asks no recognition; it demands no response. Its reward is in its giving, but it has no thought of reward. It reaches out to those around it, not because they are deserving or because they can offer something in return, but because they are part of God’s creation, and all of creation is worthy of agape.
“Agape that is given takes root where it will, and its branches spread out to shelter those around it. And as its seeds fall, new agape grows and the cycle of agape begins anew.
“The agape we give, no matter why or in what measure it is given, will be returned to us a thousandfold. It will fill the vessel of our own need and will spread out across the world like ripples on the water, reaching places we neither dream nor imagine. We need only trust that it must first be given, and all else will be revealed.
“When we give, we are opening the doors of possibility in a way that allows the light of agape to shine through. And in that light, miracles can occur.
“We will learn that nothing we can ever give will compare with the gift we receive when a human heart says, ‘Come on in. I’ve been waiting for you.’ For in that moment, we will feel a touch upon our spirit that for all the world feels like a blessing from the hand of God.”
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