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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Wednesday, January 31, 2018

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
_______________________

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



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