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The Pastoral Lens
The Power of Love
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
There are many things in this world that exhibit tremendous power. A glacier can gouge away earth, clearing everything in its path. The same holds true for tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons. These mighty acts of nature can reduce things to rubble in a very short time. Then there are the man-made items of power. There is the bulldozer, the nuclear reactor, and the Concorde jet, just to name a few. Mankind is impressed by displays of power. There are numerous accounts in the Bible of God showing His power. He divided the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape their Egyptian captors. He sent fire down from heaven to prove that Baal was just a worthless god of stone. He raised Lazarus from the dead after four days and Jesus after three. These are all great demonstrations of God's mighty power.However, there is a force more powerful than any other in the world. This "power" will both topple the fortresses of unforgiveness and bitterness and reduce a man to mush in the presence of a woman he is attracted to. I am talking about the power of love. The Bible tells us that the source of love is God Himself (1 John 4:8). Our ability to love is based on the fact that God has already demonstrated it by giving us His Son, Jesus.
An amazing story is told by George Ritchey, a psychiatrist, who witnessed an amazing example of love demonstrated in the life of a Holocaust survivor from the Second World War (a detailed account can be found in Ritchey's 1979 book, "Return From Tomorrow", co-authored with Elizabeth Sherrill). He tells of a certain prisoner, "Wild Bill", who although the veteran of six years of fifteen-hour days and a starvation diet, showed no signs of the physical and mental deterioration of his fellow prisoners. What was the reason for this miracle? He had witnessed the execution of his wife and five small children when the Nazis had taken over the Jewish section of Warsaw, Poland. He had begged to be allowed to die with his family, but was instead taken prisoner in a work camp because of his ability to speak German. He had a decision to make right there and then. He could hate these soldiers who had done this, which would have been easy to do. However, as a lawyer, he had seen in his practice what hate could do to people's minds and bodies. Hate had just killed his precious family, those who mattered most to him in his life. So, in his own words, "I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with." This man suffered on the same starvation diet, surrounded by disease and despair, yet he experienced no physical or mental deterioration. What power sustained him? It was the power of unconditional love.
Let me ask you something today. What's eating you? Who are you at odds with and refuse to forgive? That ulcer or indigestion you suffer from might be the result of a lack of love in your life. Go ahead, read John 13 in the New Testament, and see what kind of love Jesus displayed. He washed the stinky, dirty feet of twelve men, and one of those men was Judas, a man whom Jesus knew would shortly betray Him. This Jesus is the same Jesus who loves you. Why not do to others what He did for you? Is there someone you need to forgive today?
