Why love is more potent and powerful than you might think
May 27th, 2008 by spaceagesage
Love is an odd thing. As a word, it means different things to different people. As a concept, it takes our emotions for a ride. As a virtue, it asks us to be giving and selfless. As a reality, it’s power is still untapped.
- Love is not lust, manipulation “for the other person’s good,” or a way to make you happy.
- Love is not wishy-washy, namby-pamby, or an oozing emotion that turns us soft, squishy, and spineless.
- Love is not co-dependency, suicide pacts between “lovers,” or competitiveness.
- Love is not abusive, controlling, or belittling.
So what is it, this thing called love?
- Love is putting aside ego, arrogance, needing to feel right, and wanting to rationalize another’s viewpoint away.
- Love is facing people who are heading down a dangerous road and telling them – without anger or judgment or manipulation – that their actions are hurtful and unwise.
- Love is letting others learn life’s lessons the hard way as they make poor life choices, constantly and willfully put themselves in harm’s way, or refuse to listen to loving reason.
- Love is letting go of the need to win, to horde support, or to give only with strings attached.
- Love is taking personal responsibility for our decisions, our relationships, and our lives.
To be unwilling to do these things is to buy into our own neediness, our own weaknesses, and our own desire to push blame away from ourselves. None of that would be love.
Why not?
Love is:
- Selflessness without self loss or self aggrandizement
- Submission without surrender
- Serving without slavishness or superiority
- Strength without coercion
- Support without payback or payoffs
- Sharing without insecurity
This summation comes from 1 Corinthians:13 in an NIV translation of the Bible:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Love is powerful. It is life-giving, nurturing, flowing, healing, and protective. To use modern language, Love Kicks Butt!
If you want to learn to kick butt, too, do this exercise: In the above scripture, replace the word “love” or its pronoun with your own name and see how you stack up. We have to ask ourselves, are we patient and kind? Do we boast or envy? Are we proud, rude, and self-seeking, etc.?
I like this passage from Dr Wayne Dyers’ book, The Power of Intention where he explains the power of love as a high and fast energy:
Thoughts and emotions are pure energy: some higher and faster than others. When higher energies occupy the same field as lower energies, the lower energies convert to higher energies. A simple example of this is a darkened room that has lower energy than a room bathed in light. Since light moves faster than non-light, when a candle is brought into a dark room, the darkness not only dissolves and disappears, but it seems magically converted into light. The same is true of love, which is a higher/faster energy than the energy of hate.
St. Francis, in his famous prayer, beseeches God: “Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” What he is seeking is the power to dissolve and ultimately convert hate to the energy of love.
He adds this recommendation: “pour your love into your immediate environment … remove all unloving thoughts from your mind, and practice kindness in all of your thoughts, words, and actions. Cultivate this love in your immediate circle …”
How about you? How do you let the power of love flow in your life? What ways do you light the candle and brighten the world around you?