Giving-up power in the name of love and liberation

Power can be wielded blatantly and obviously in a relationship through, for example, anger, brow-beating, strops and sulks, finger-pointing, judgement and accusation. Or it can be wielded more subtly and less obviously through, for example, secret grievance-making and score-keeping, excessive reasoning, emotional aloofness, and quiet stubbornness. Either way, this power is used as a weapon against the other, which then, if it leads to tit-for-tat, can quickly get the relationship into a big muddy hole. The problem is that giving-up this power (even if it is for a loved one) evokes a fear deep-inside; the thought is (the lie is), that if you are not on top, if you are not coming in first, then you will likely get taken for a ride! In response, what we must all learn to do is to continually and always give-up power in the name of love and liberation (in small things and in big things), realising that this act of perfect love, as it says in 1 John 4:18, is what drives out all fear. Why so? Because when we give-up our power first, we have nothing of ourselves to lose and so nothing to fear on earth, and only the Kingdom of God and his blessings to gain for you and the other person. 

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