When Love Organizes Itself
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Justice is what love looks like in public.” — Cornel West
Love alone won’t save us.
Not the sentimental kind, not the Hallmark theology that confuses tenderness with transformation. But love organized—love with structure, stamina, and strategy—just might.
When fear becomes a crowd, love must become a movement.
That means learning what fear already knows: how to build power, how to speak with one voice, how to act collectively. Fear gathers people around scarcity. Love gathers people around possibility.
Organized love begins in the body. It shows up in neighbors who check on one another, in congregations that refuse to fall silent, in parents who teach their children to tell the truth even when it costs them comfort. It’s not lofty; it’s logistical. Organized love is mysticism with a to-do list.
bell hooks wrote that “love is an action, never simply a feeling.”1 Real love demands accountability, courage, and the willingness to confront systems that destroy life. This is why love must organize: because without form, love remains private—and private love, however sincere, cannot withstand public hate.
The first Christians called this koinonia: a fellowship fierce enough to survive empire. The Franciscans called it kinship, the willingness to stand inside another’s reality until compassion becomes policy. Dorothy Day called it the long loneliness—the struggle to build community that refuses to bow to despair.2
Theologian and scientist, Teilhard de Chardin, widened the frame even further. He said, “Love is the most universal, formidable and mysterious of cosmic energies.” Ilia Delio carries that vision forward, reminding us that love is not simply emotion or ethics—it is the evolutionary impulse of God drawing the universe toward communion.3 When we organize love, we cooperate with the deep structure of creation itself.
Organized love does not wait for permission. It practices resurrection daily—feeding, marching, voting, teaching, tending, remembering. It moves through ordinary acts until we recognize their holiness.
What does that look like now? Congregations that organize mutual aid for the undocumented. Neighborhoods that plant gardens on abandoned lots. People who refuse to let cynicism have the last word.
Love that isn’t organized remains abstract.
And abstraction never saved anyone.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where do you see love trying to organize itself in your community?
What resources—time, skill, voice—could you lend to that collective work?
How might seeing love as the very energy of the universe expand your understanding of faith and responsibility?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For Love That Learns Strategy
Holy Weaver of the world, teach us to love as you love— not from a distance but in the details. Show us how to organize mercy as fiercely as others organize fear. When we tire of the work, remind us that compassion is cosmic law, that love is the gravity holding galaxies together. Bind our hearts until courage becomes contagious. And let our love be strong enough to take on systems, not just sentiments. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Mapping the Movement
Take a blank page and draw a web. In the center, write Love Organized.
Around it, add names of people or groups in your city or town who embody this kind of love—those working for housing justice, ecological repair, racial equity, democratic integrity.
Then, ask: where do these threads intersect with my life?
Choose one place to show up this week, not as a savior, but as kin.
As you move through your day, imagine the same cosmic force that spins galaxies also pulsing through your ordinary gestures of care. Feel that current at work when you pick up the phone, share a meal, or tell the truth.
Love—when it organizes—isn’t just resistance. It’s evolution choosing to continue through us.
A Note from Cameron
Gentle Shift, Rooted in Gratitude
Dear friends,
Over the past few years of writing these meditations, so many of you have written back to me, expressing gratitude, sharing your own reflections, and reminding me that these words are landing where they’re needed. I can’t tell you what that means to me.
Some of you have even sent letters by mail—Susan from Mountain View tucked in a sheet of stickers “to bring joy” along with a $20 bill; Erika and Mark sent a note and a donation to Convergence in appreciation for these reflections. Hundreds of you leave notes of appreciation in the comments. Each gesture reminds me that what we’re building here is more than a mailing list. It’s a community of kindred spirits, seeing one another through a very trying time.
At the end of each meditation, I remind us that “we are in this together.” I truly feel that from you.
I’m making a gentle shift and turning on the paid subscription option for this Substack. There’s no obligation—these meditations will continue to arrive in your inbox freely. But if this space has become part of your rhythm, and you wish to help sustain it, your support means a great deal. THANK YOU to those who already subscribed.
Together we make the world a bit kinder, more creative, and more generous. Thank you for walking this path with me.
With deep gratitude,
Cameron
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
January 6, 13, 20, 2026 - Protest and Action Chaplaincy Training with Rev. Anna Galladay. This live, online training offers a framework for providing compassionate, grounded spiritual care during protests, advocacy gatherings, and social movements. Learn more here.
January 15, 2026, 7-8pm EST - FREE Online Webinar: When the Internet Hurts: The Hidden Online Dangers Facing Our Teens and How Faith Communities Can Respond, Join me in conversation with Sharon Winkler, survivor parent and nationally respected youth online-safety advocate. Sharon’s son, Alex, died at age 17 after experiencing cyberbullying and algorithmically targeted pro-suicide content. Since then, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping parents, educators, and faith leaders recognize online dangers and build safer communities for young people. Register here.
February 11th and 25, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This new section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
Dr. Luther E. Smith, Jr. is the Professor Emeritus of Church and Community at Emory University (and was my seminary professor a long time ago). He has a new book out that I’m excited about: Hope Is Here! Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community.
James Finley is one of our great teachers of the mystics. His podcast, hosted by the Center for Action and Contemplation, is a deep-dive into the mystical teachings of saints like St. Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence, St. John of the Cross, and Julian of Norwich, just to name a few. Check it out here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Listen to this interview with the great bell hooks where she unpacks her philosophy of love, a love ethic that undergirds a compassionate culture:
Dorothy Day gives us a beautiful model of love organizing itself. Watch this trailer about her life for inspiration for how to live your own:
Listen to Ilia Delio’s podcast here: https://christogenesis.org/podcast/
My initial response to "How might seeing love as the very energy of the universe expand your understanding of faith and responsibility?": this recognition encourages me toward compassion, strengthens my courage to trust and have faith in the unfolding of life, and energizes my commitment to expand my ownership, authority and stewarding of the living Earth.
Love, organized, moves,
gathers heads, hearts, hands, shapes, builds.
Works on to-do lists.
...
True love, activist.
Caring kinship, keeps it real.
Simple, holy acts.