And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34.

Carl Sandburg talks about the 'zoo' inside each of us there's a pig, and a lion, and a tiger, and a gentle deer. We have all kinds of feelings within us: we are responsible for some of them and not others. But although there is a zoo in me, I am keeper of that zoo!

For example, it is not wrong to be angry, but what you do with your anger could be very harmful. Jesus got angry sometimes. And if you want to get mad at me, that's O.K. I should pray for the maturity to handle our conflicts constructively. Just as friction between certain types of rocks produces sparks of light, so it is the friction of our individualities rubbing against each other that illuminates who we really are.

There is a sense in which I do not really know you nor you me until we get to a point where we differ...

May my love for others create worth in them rather than responding to worth I perceive in them, Lord. As you loved us while we were yet sinners, may I practise love-beforeworth too. Amen.

INSIDE SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN

If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples. John 13:35.

The words 'ought' or 'should' mustn't generally be used in relation to feelings. Our feelings are like toothache they're there - and no amount of exhorting will make a toothache or the feelings go away...

When you are truly in touch with your own feelings, you'll be more compassionate with others. Here's Frederick Buechner's definition of compassion: 'The sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody's else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.'

True community is born from love that risks the sorrow of rejection for the love of acceptance. Community implies participation; participation implies action. True community means walking in the light, being open, and perhaps vulnerable with one another.

Lord, may I experience more deeply the perfect love that casts out fear. Amen.