Two millennia ago, a Jewish man brought some revolutionary concepts forward: God is loving, and Love is the the supreme power and guide for humanity. Previously, the image of God was essentially portrayed as an all-powerful, vengeful figure who ruled by fear. Society reflected those God-like characteristics. (Or, was it the other way around?) A loving, forgiving God the Father was a massive paradigm shift. Not all took well to this new idea, particularly those in political and financial power who depended on heavy-handed constructs to maintain their control over the masses.
Jesus lived his life, as best a human could, in accord with the principles he taught. This was truly revolutionary thinking and behaviour in that age. (There is one notable exception for Jesus that I will get to later.) Jesus befriended the outcasts of society and socialised with the highest classes. He related to all of them with Love at the center of his intentions.
After too many years of blind stumbling, I now consciously do my best to follow the example Jesus provided. Believe me, it ain’t easy! I fail more often than I care to admit. And then, I practice some more. Recent years have made my practice all the more challenging. I see conditions in the world that savage my idealist psyche. And, I thoughtlessly react. My thoughts and behaviours in those moments are incongruent with my true being. I am struck off balance and stumble into a condition that I call Dissonance.
It hurts.
To find peace and to return to my practice, I must remind myself of what I believe to be true of myself and of humankind. Some of the tools I use to do this are the documented wisdom of the ages. I don’t limit myself to any one source. Wisdom comes in many wrappers – secular, non-secular, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, comedy … The wrapper is irrelevant. A gift is a gift.
This is a Christian passage that can always soothe my aching soul:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
This is where I want to live from. As an idealist, this is also where I want and expect my leaders to live from. I use this passage as a touchstone for my thoughts and behaviours. Rightly or wrongly, I also use it to assess the demonstrated behaviours of those who are in authority. I regularly experience disappointment and, yes, anger because of my judgement of others. For example, read that Corinthians passage again and then browse through Donald Trump’s Twitter tsunami. You will find dissonance pure and simple. I wont even broach the matter of religious leaders and behaviours of abuse and greed. Grrrr. There I go again. Practice, practice, practice…
This brings me to that notable exception I mentioned earlier. It is often referred to as Jesus’ Temple Tantrum. Jesus was upset when he found the temple being contaminated by the money changers. Who were the money changers? They were the people converting worshipers foreign coins to local currency and charging unreasonable fees to do so. They were the religious leaders who said the overpriced offerings purchased from them were the only sacrifices God would accept. They were all those seeking to profit from the everyday people who simply sought to practice their relationship with God and to live a happy life.
I can’t help but see history repeating itself (again) in our present world condition. Are we devolving into a state of leadership and control by fear (again)? It surely feels like it. We collectively seem to have forgotten so much of what humanity has evolved through – wars, genocide, terrorism. With each atrocity of the past we claimed to have learned to be better and have vowed, “never again.” But then, the again comes around. It does because we have not continued our work, our practice as individuals and as a species. We can’t afford to keep this up. We are strangling ourselves, each other, and our world.
We are each responsible for our own practice. We are also responsible to hold our leaders accountable for their hurtful and destructive behaviour. Is it fair and reasonable to expect compassion, fairness, decency, and, dare I say, Love from our leaders? I believe it is, yes! I also believe it is as much of a duty for us to demand it of each of them as it is to practice loving kindness ourselves. This world is diverse and there are a lot of us. There are raw conflicts. These conflicts cannot be fought away or bought away, but they can be loved into coalescence. Every dividing issue is a symptom of the same condition: amnesia. We have forgotten that we have much more in common than we do differences. We have forgotten that we have a supreme power to guide us: Love.
It’s not easy, I know.
Love is both the challenge and the solution. Let’s practice more, shall we?