Devotion - by Jane Owens

 

At the start of lockdown I got together a small group of friends on Facebook who were interested in trying to listen to God and started a discussion in messenger.  Six of us began a conversation which has proved to be so positive and helpful and encouraging over the past months. None of the group knew anyone else except me.  They are all now good friends.   Here is Jane.  She wanted to grow in her understanding of how God speaks.  So I volunteered her to write a blog 😁  ( well, its all about discipleship innit? )

I wish I could tell you that God has given me a profound and insightful thing to share with you, but the thing that He did seem to be nudging me about this week is something that I don’t particularly want to admit to! It came from watching the T.V show “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”…

In an attempt to spend some positive time with my 14-year-old daughter, who, like most teenagers spends most of her time attached to an electrical device in her bedroom, we cosied up with fleecy blankets on the sofa and watched the craziness that all her schoolmates were talking about.

My attitude to the programme over the past two/three weeks changed from rather judgemental disdain to a genuine liking for a group of 12 quite endearing people.

There were soap stars, Olympians, a radio D.J, an opera singer, a journalist and an author/podcaster etc. All different ages and backgrounds, brought together to participate in a kind of human experiment. Previously strangers, they are cut off from normal everyday life, in order to eat, sleep and live together in close proximity, in an old castle in North Wales. They embark on daily trials and challenges involving unmentionably disgusting things to eat, and getting up close and personal with the likes of maggots, scorpions and snakes, to thereby win food for the group and prove / stretch their resilience.

From what I hear, this year’s group has differed from those of the previous 18, in that there was virtually zero falling out or tension, and in fact, all 12 have formed an incredible bond which they say is of a quality that they never expected, and which they believe is the beginning of lifelong friendship. The personalities and group dynamics were fascinating, but what struck a chord in me, and the thing that I want to write about today is the apparent depth of love and affection that has grown between them.   

So… these adult celebrities, (some of them mature in years), were ALWAYS hugging. They linked arms with whomever was nearby; in fact, they were forever reaching across to touch each other in some way. They affirmed, reassured and praised each other’s triumphs, however small. The girls brushed and braided each other’s hair. They played tig and hide and seek. They laughed, cried, and shared their ‘stuff’. They said ‘I love you’ frequently, (men included).

If you aren’t a touchy feely person, you are probably thinking that it sounds absolutely awful! But as weird as it sounds, it seemed very real and natural.  And it got me thinking… Where did that love come from? And why did it happen?  They can’t ALL have been deprived of affection as children. They can’t ALL have been left out of the group at school and yearned to fit in.

As Christians we talk about the ‘God shaped hole’ in each of us. The place inside us that can only be satisfied by Father God’s love. And what we know about Father God, is that He made us for deep intimacy. Intimacy firstly with Him, but also with others, and the Bible writers take time to convey how important our love for each other should be.

 A speaker once mentioned how many times the term ‘one another’ was mentioned in the New Testament. I cannot remember the number, but it was a lot! The Bible says in Romans 12 v 10 ‘Be devoted to one another in love, honour one another above yourselves.’ In 1 Peter 14 v 8, ‘Above all, love each other deeply’ and in John 15 v 12 ‘My command is this, love each other as I have loved you’.

‘Devoted’ and ‘devotion’ are strong words. They are intense and passionate. As Christians, we desire to live a life of devotion to God, but when I read these verses this week – verses that I have read before many times, it struck me anew to consider what it might actually look like to be devoted to one another, today, in 2020?

Without realising it, the celebrities in the castle were in some way living out a biblical command.

I have not come to any fixed conclusions about this – sorry! I suspect that it isn’t a question that has a ‘one size fits all’ answer. We all tick so differently.

Maybe for some of us, we might take a step back and ask ourselves a precursor question. ‘Do I want to live like that?’, ‘Is my heart ready for it?’

Maybe we could ask God to show us the people He wants us to be devoted to, and to show us how He wants us to love them well, pray for them and bless them.

2020, a year in which we have been largely separated from our “one another’s”; the year we stopped hugging. Yet strangely, for me, I have experienced a greater closeness in some of my relationships and made new connections that have become very precious to me. How typical of God to turn it on its head and bring fruitfulness from apparent wasteland.

I’m not entirely sure what God is asking of me, or in fact how to end this blog! But in the meantime I am holding on to the 1 Peter verse, to ‘Love deeply’. Seems like a good place to start…