8 min read

The Power of Love

Guest Blogger: SHERRY CANNON-JONES (Soul Purpose Strategist - UK)

Faith, hope and Love …and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13)

In these unchartered waters of Covid-19, the importance and the power of LOVE have become even more entrenched in my psyche.

Love is the greatest gift we have, our creator hardwired it into our DNA and it was the focus of the greatest commandment given by Jesus in the New Testament.

Whether you have a faith or not, LOVE is still the thing that relationships are built on and as humans we cannot escape relationships, with others or more importantly ourselves.

I have recently been thinking about LOVE in all it’s forms, who we have it for, what we have it for, who and what we give it to.

What is love? What does it mean to us? what impact does it have on life?

The more I thought about LOVE, the more I realised how it infiltrates everything we do and everything we are. The concept of love was growing exponentially as I allowed my mind to explore what love means to be.

I decided to go back to the beginning of life and look love’s role in the creation of man. Over the last year I have found myself on a spiritual journey and questioning the life I live in relation to my faith. Love and kindness have always been two of my core values, two things I believe make the world a better place.

It was during a conversation with a friend that I had an aha moment. My work as a coach is about helping people to strip back the layers and reconnect with their soul’s purpose to live a life of joy and abundance and when you strip life back to the beginning of time, you come to the Garden of Eden, life in the perfectness that God intended; and so ‘Garden of Life’ came into being.

We are born in a state of pure perfectness just the way God intended and it is only as we go through life, the pressures and expectation of humankind, bury our authentic selves and disconnect us from our souls and eventually we can find ourselves standing outside our garden of life in the same way Adam and Eve were made to leave Eden as a result of their actions.

Every one of us was born with love in our hearts, I believe no one is born with hate or so called ‘wickedness’ at their core, some may disagree but I believe we are born with the loving soul God designed when he created us. It is what follows our birth that determines the level of love that shines through and I also believe that everyone no matter who, still has some level of love in their heart, regardless of their life experience, actions or behaviour. For me, that is the way we were designed, there is a failsafe system that allows that spark of love no matter how small to be ignited and brought back with nourishment to a full flame. It was this realisation that brought home the immense power of LOVE.

Having love at your core doesn’t guarantee you always behave in an appropriate way, it doesn’t make you a saint and it doesn’t mean you are any better than anyone else. Love can act as a safety catch, if your intention is always to come from a place of love, your words and actions will be kinder, more thoughtful, more understanding. Even if there is dispute and conflict, if you come from a standpoint of love, the resolutions will always be more peaceful.

Love can sometimes be declared as the reason to get caught up in a battle but if you really look at the intention of those at the centre of battle, Love will not be at the core of their reason. Love is the opposite to hate, love is pure in essence and so cannot be driven by negative emotions. Crimes of passion are not driven by love regardless of the perpetrator declaring they are…. How can they be, you do not hurt someone if you love them, in these instances the emotion driving the behaviour will be the need for control, resentment etc.

When you love someone, you wish them no harm and your intention would be to never cause them hurt by your words or action. But…. We are human, we are not divine, we are not perfect and so even with love at our core we WILL still slip up and say or do something out of selfishness, or a negative emotion. We momentarily lose the intention to ALWAYS come from a place of love. The good news is, the more you practise living from a place of love the easier it becomes, the flame I referred to earlier begins to grow. We become skilled at recognising if our actions and thoughts are coming from a place of love or not and make adjustments.

Try it for yourself. Think about a time where you found yourself in a conflict or quarrel with a loved one, regardless of blame, replay the scenario in your mind but this time the words you say and the actions you take, have them come from a place where your heart is filled with love , kindness and understanding. How different is the outcome? What are your feelings? How is the other person’s response?

When we let love control our behaviour it is really difficult for the other person to respond it a way that continues the conflict. If a person’s behaviour is being driven by emotions of anger and you respond with kindness and understanding you can visibly see their body language relax and tension lift from the exchange.

LOVE leads to kindness and compassion. These three words that have the potential to change the world and the immediate power to change the life of just one person anywhere at any time.

How we treat others will always have an impact that is hidden, the impact on their heart and mind. Positive or negative; for that person there will be an emotion that is evoked as a response to our actions or treatment of them.

No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and whatever the situation, Love, kindness and compassion should transcend emotion and translate into action.

Leading with love, showing compassion, acting out kindness, practising forgiveness; are the ways we as human being should be behaving as we live side by side.

In today’s world, it is heart breaking to see the normalisation of condemning, tearing down, hounding, belittling, judging and slander. As I go through my journey in the online world of work, I see so many incidents of this, it appears that the barrier of a computer screen gives some people the idea they do not have to think about how they are speaking to others or the impact their words may have on people. Experience has shown there can be a ruthless and selfish edge that leads people to make choices and decisions that can devastate others, if you make decisions from a place of love and kindness even the toughest of required actions can be received with understanding from the people they impact.

Showing love, empathy and compassion is what helps bring peace and comfort. Often in business these values can get lost in the journey to success. For some, everyone is seen as a competitor or a threat to your own progression but the world was created in a way that God provided enough for everyone. It is only our manmade rules and egotistical practises that have resulted in there being a massive discrepancy in the wealth distribution across the world.

Jesus asked as to love one another and to serve others before we serve ourselves. You have the greatest opportunity to do this when you are in business for yourself. There are shining examples of philanthropy, such as Oprah Winfrey, JK Rowling and Angelina Jolie. Yes, these people are successful and wealthy but they give back so much to charitable cause to help others. When your why in business is to ‘help and serve others’ you are blessed to fulfil your purpose.

The Bible says, ‘To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown (Job 6:14)

When it comes to Christlike compassion, the Bible teaches us two more things. In adversity someone may find themselves in, Pressure? Rejection? Pain? Temptation? Slander? Lies? False accusations? But what is worse is when a person finds themselves in a situation where they are consumed with a feeling of Isolation. They feel there is no solution, no way back, they feel they have no one to talk to and there is no way forward.

In this unprecedented time of the corona virus, we need to respond to the needs of others as well as keeping ourselves and our families safe. There is a conscious awakening and many people are calling us out and saying we have to stand up and say it's not okay to treat people in a way that puts them in a place of hopelessness. My message is that as a human race and every person in it needs to take time to reflect on how they treat others, to dig deep and ask the question, what drives their thoughts and actions, is it love or is it not. Do you want to live in a world where peace, joy, love and happiness are the prevailing emotions in society or one where, suspicion, hatred, anger and intolerance are the dominant traits. If it is love, it’s not enough just to recognise and relate to the needs of others when something tragic happens, we need to have love, kindness and compassion as the automatic responses and behaviour to how interact with each other as part of our everyday lives.

We are called to action on a practical level‼‼ otherwise, our desire to make a change is meaningless. Love, kindness and compassion have no limits. We need to get our hands dirty to meet the needs of another. Whether you are in business for yourself or not is irrelevant,

The Bible says: ‘God anointed Jesus…with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him’ Acts 10:38

What’s your main concern in life – looking good or doing good? If you have truth and authenticity in your heart, you already know the answer to that question.

Attitudes are fickle at best – and outright ugly at worst. Clothe yourselves with tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12) Some of us have to work harder at this than others. But there’s no opt-out clause: ‘All of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another.’

When you open up your heart to love and allow it to truly connect with your soul, you raise your vibrational energy, you link to a something truly bigger than ourselves, for me that is my relationship with God, others will call it the ‘universe, source, divine, mother earth’ it is my belief these are all names for the same thing. When you allow yourself to sit in love and feel its power it literally sets you free. It doesn’t stop uncomfortable, or undesired things from happening but it does allow you to come through with a sense of peace. When your heart is filled with love, the world around you appears brighter and more vibrant, you sub-conscious awakens and you see the world through different eyes, often seeing things as if for the first time. Positioning yourself in a world focused on love not only impacts your inner being it impacts on how you see the world around you and how you interact with it. Think again about my ‘Garden of Life’ , when love is your bedrock you return back to your ‘garden’ and just as it bursts into flower again and is truly a magnificent sight to see, your passion for life is reignited allowing you to in joy and abundance.