I’m enjoying how quotable Alain de Botton’s ‘Status Anxiety‘ is on the subject of Love. I guess if you like he’s a modern philosopher, whatever you call him, he does seem to place his finger on and explain human experience and some of the thoughts and feelings behind it.
“To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern. Our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our feelings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.” – p.11
“Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first – the story of our quest for sexual love – is well known and well charted, its vagaries form the staple of music and literature, it is socially accepted and celebrated. The second – the story of our quest for love from the world – is a more secret and shameful tale. If mentioned, it tends to be in caustic, mocking terms, as something of interest chiefly to envious or deficient souls, or else the drive for status is interpreted in an economic sense alone. And yet this second love story is no less intense than the first, it is no less complicated, important or universal, and its setbacks are no less painful. There is heartbreak here too.” – p.13
“To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern. Our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our feelings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.” – p.11
Recently we’ve been studying 1 Thessalonians, I was able to look a 2:1-16… seeing something of Paul’s model ministry, and the model church which the Thessalonians had become. Below are a few quotes that I found helpful… particularly helpful was a book called Body Beautiful by Melvin Tinker and Nathan Buttery, seeking to recover a Biblical view of the Church. It’s a great little book, so surprising to see it now seems to be out of print – although copies 














