May 5, 2023

Hey Centennial,

Let me start this email with a rather philosophical question: What is a human?

We spent a couple Sundays last May exploring that very question. Here is the answer I suggested, Humans are physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual beings designed for love.  We are inherently multi-faceted and integrated. Almost two thousand years ago, an early Jesus follower named Augustine reflected on this same question. He observed that humans too often consider themselves to be brains on a stick, that thinking is our most critical function. He disagreed and believed that instead we were designed for relationship, particularly relationships of love.

“Love, and do what you will.  If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love. If you punish, do it out of love. Let the root of love be in you: nothing can spring from it but good.” Saint Augustine, The City of God.

If Augustine is right, then we need to think all the more seriously about the nature of our relationships. To what degree is our life characterized by relationships of love? As we think about that question, we inevitably come to another,

What about my relationship with God? Would I describe that as a relationship of love?

This Sunday, as we near the end of our sermon series on Hebrews, we are going to reflect on that question together. I pray we all walk away more certain that a love relationship with God is at the center of our daily living.

Grace and peace,