True Power

When one party (read person) has all the power, which is, for many, the very definition of God – the only natural response is fear, denial (practical atheism), hiding, or seeking to manipulate the situation.  The flow of giving and receiving is not possible with such an imbalance of power.  Love requires some capacity for equality and mutually.  The only way for this pattern to change is for God, from God’s side, to shift the power equation and come to us in a vulnerable position.  Jesus is this living icon of this power-shift:

                                           Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, 1/22/18

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I want to change the world

I really do

If you haven’t noticed, it’s a bit of a mess

I want to change the world

I want the power to make that happen!!!!

Sigh!

Already I have lost my way

For power is the problem

I fear we humans, even those of us who insist

That we want a way of love,

Think power is the way to get what we want

But power rarely leads to love

It leads to control, and abuse

There is the power OF love

And the power TO love

But love is expressed not through power

But through vulnerability

Love happens when we come along side

When there is equity

And equality

Yes, I am being simplistic

I often am

But it occurs to me that when I kneel

And talk to a child at their eye level

I am a different person than when I loom over them

It occurs to me that when I take the time to listen and affirm another

Before I go off on my ideological rants

That the tone of the conversation has a chance to be transformed

For aggressive an combative

To compassion and productive

I fail so often to love effectively

Because I seek to scramble to a position of power

Rather than emptying myself of all that ego

And putting myself

Where I can connect with them,

but also where they can equally connect with me

To that place of self-exposure

Honesty and authenticity

And real

Love

Where good things can begin to happen

For both people

Both side

For all