Navigating turbulent times

Love needs effective steering

By Andrew Wright

There is a wonderful chapel in London. Engraved in the centre of the room is a large compass rose with four points – north, south, east and west. Around it there are written some words of St Augustine which resonate, and which form a very good basis for reflection. They read: “We come to God not by navigation, but by love.”

Navigation is important. Love without effective navigation would not leave seafarers and ships in a good place! However, the quote reminds us of the overriding importance of love. Love for neighbour. Love for enemy. Love for one another. Love that knows no bounds.

Such sacrificial love is the only thing that can change the world. How it is needed in the turbulent, fragile and often cruel times in which we live – times in which seafarers and their families have often felt the world’s crises first and hardest.

It is such love with which God has loved us since the foundation of the world. Christians believe that it is God who is the source of all such love, that in such loving we reflect the very best of God and that in such love we discover God.

“Ubi Caritas Deus Ibi Est”. Where there is love, there is God. May we all love as we are loved and may our love stretch to all.

How are you going to show such love today – and indeed tomorrow?

The Revd Canon Andrew Wright is the former secretary general of The Mission to Seafarers.