by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace, and one would have to add to that, and only then.
The love of power and the love of money of wealth, of riches, more of then than not go hand in hand, and at times we cannot be sure which brings about which.
It is, and while I am not a believer in the God of the Bible, true what it says in the Good Book, as some call it, that “the love of money is the root of all evil” though the better translation would have been “the love of wealth” and the love of wealth, of money, in this context also must mean the love of acquiring possessions, and the race to have ever more of them.
The love of money and of possessions is, I believe, what, more often than not, begets the love of power, be this personal power, political power or whatever. Money, in some shape or form, is always somewhere behind it.
It will require a shift in thoughts and action, and getting away from the notion of power; power over things, Nature nations and people. But, alas, even many with the best intentions – such as in politics – always come up again with sentences such as “when we are (going to be) in power we will do this and that”. Always it comes back to this P-word, even among those who advocate worldwide brotherly loves.
Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world” and that means we have to change before we can hope to affect changes for the better. That means that before we can use the power of love we first have to develop it in ourselves and love ourselves, as we are, before we can begin to love our neighbors, our fellow man and the rest of creation.
Often the born-again Christian brigade tells its followers that they must love others before themselves, in fact that they have to put themselves last and they even teach it the children with the word JOY to stand for J = Jesus first, O = others next, Y = yourself last. That, however, is not what Jesus said. He said, “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” and before we can therefor love our neighbor and our fellow man we have to be at peace with ourselves and love ourselves. And then, and only then, the power of love can begin to shine and to overcome evil.
Too many people, however, and not just those “in power” want to be better than their neighbors and jealousy and greed governs their life and they are prepared to walk over dead bodies – almost for many and really for some – to get what they want and for the the love of power is everything. It is like that at the workplace and even in churches and definitely in politics.
Most pastors of churches, especially so-called and supposedly evangelical ones, and here very much those of the mega-churches have but one aim, namely power over the people in their congregation and hence the elaborate hierarchies that they create with themselves at the head, and then elders and deacons, etc. The love of power rules in those churches and while they profess Jesus they certainly do not behave in the ways of His teaching.
The power of love, on the other hand, is often found anywhere but in the churches and that is the power that will, in the end put an end to the love of power.
© 2014
