THE LAST RIVER MILE

Human beings often use force as an answer to problems, both individually and collectively. Force can create protection, when no other options seem available. Beyond that, we sometimes assume that we must use force to accomplish whatever we happen to believe that we need or want. This includes force of all kinds: verbal force, relational force, physical force, mental and emotional force, military force, etc.

And force can create much. Force can create compliance from other people. It can create “victory”, however that is defined by whomever. It can create allegiance, or at least the appearance of it. (Mostly for survival purposes…) Force can create some level of conformity, at least for a time. And most certainly it can create fear, which can be leveraged to make human beings do just about anything.

However, there is at least one thing force cannot create. Force can’t create love.

For those who have read George Orwell’s great 1949 dystopian novel NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, the ending is wrong. The book concludes by saying of the lead character, Winston Smith, “He loved Big Brother.” In fact, Smith did not love Big Brother; he was complying with the force of Big Brother. The authoritarian regime that had broken Smith may have convinced him this was “love.” But he was no more than any physically, emotionally, or mentally shattered creature just trying to survive. Force did not create love in Winston Smith. Love had nothing to do with it.

Those of us who are Jesus-followers believe that God is love. (See I John 4:8 among other biblical references.) The very origin of existence is love. The singular movement of human history that refuses to be silent or to go away is love. That which is made fully known in the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus of Nazareth is love. That which insists on the sacred value of all children of God, even and especially the least, the last, and the lost is love. That which is the destination of the human journey is love…the one thing force cannot create.

So if we want something that is genuine and that lasts…force or love? Do the math.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.