By Stephen Russell-Lacy.
Play or download podcast of this post
If there really were a power of love behind the universe, why doesn’t it stop widespread suffering in the world?
The struggle to find a compelling argument for the existence of both pain and disease and a loving powerful God puts many people off religion. Have we not heard someone say something like the following?
‘I have a hard time believing that a good God would allow so much evil or suffering in the world’,
And how a Divine Being of power and justice could allow even innocent children to suffer terribly and die puzzles even many with a strong religious faith today.
Of course, the atheist would say the answer is simple.
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.” (Richard Dawkins ‘River out of Eden’)
Receiving the power of love we can be happy
I believe a more meaningful answer is explicitly presented by theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. It is to do with the nature of love itself. When we truly love someone, we want them to be happy.
Love cannot care for nothing. It has affection for something other than itself. Otherwise, it would be merely self-concern and not love at all.
If the universal power of love created human beings to be happy, this would mean our living in peace, contentment and joy. Instead, many of us seem to be uneasy, discontented or fed up.
The spiritual perspective is to say no lasting happiness comes when we focus our minds on illusory rewards of selfishness and bodily pleasure as the be-all and end-all of daily living. To be deeply happy we need to change our outlook and adopt new attitudes. Having consideration for others e.g. by sharing and taking turns, rather than being self-serving. Being concerned for the ethics of living rather than ignoring the right way to conduct our affairs. Following deeper values and principles rather than over-indulging the bodily passions.
Power of love and not love of power
If the loving energy behind the universe is power to make the stars, planets and life, it is the power of love and not the love of power.
A love of power would be wanting to get your own way, to make someone do what you want, even if you think they will benefit.
In contrast, the power of love comes from the effectiveness of love itself. It wants to give itself. We see its ability to move the spirit, to offer help, guide, inspire and encourage. The power of love to overcome selfishness and hate is not through the use of force to compel. Selfless love is neither violent nor destructive. Rather its power comes from the use of non-retaliation, concern for others and an accepting forgiving attitude.
We need freedom to learn
We might suppose that a God of love would miraculously take away our pain, or other types of suffering. However this would be counterproductive according to Swedenborg.
“It is the intent of the Lord’s divine providence that we act in freedom and in accord with reason. Both of these abilities in us would be destroyed if miracles happened and we were forced into belief by them.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)
The spirit of love doesn’t force itself. You can’t make anyone be kinder and more considerate.
Kids never learn if their school work is done for them to get them good marks. They need to acquire knowledge and understanding for themselves by doing the work of learning. Good parenting gives growing children the freedom to find out what sports, hobbies and jobs they are suited to. Yes, protect their safety, but stifling them, by controlling everything they do, would be counterproductive. Love allows freedom for youngsters to develop as individuals. Even if this means making their mistakes along the path towards good sense and understanding of the ways of the world. So we do not necessarily blame the parent, even though teenagers may sometimes suffer, as a result of their own foolhardy experiments in living.
Like a loving parent, I would say that the God of love respects our autonomy.
“It is a law of divine providence that we should act freely and rationally; that everything we intend, think, say, and do seems to be on our own; that if it did not seem so, nothing would be ours, not even ourselves, so we would have no sense of self and therefore no sense of worth, and without this it would make no difference whether we did evil or good.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)
Love wants to be freely loved back
You can’t make someone love you back. You can’t buy love by lavishing gifts or spoiling someone whether you be a parent or a lover. And even if you did try, the other person wouldn’t respond with real love anyway. We can manipulate someone to try to get them to like us but any positive feelings will only be skin-deep.
When we fall in love, we want the person we love to genuinely love us too. We want them to freely return our affection.
The power of love wants our freedom
Similarly, the spirit of love behind all things wants us to be free to think and feel as we each wish. It allows us to intend and think well or badly as we please.
“It is this intent … that makes whatever we think and say and intend and do seem to be our own.” (Emanuel Swedenborg, spiritual philosopher)
I would suggest this universal love is not a sentimental feeling. It has its own light. So it knows what is best for us. It hopes that we learn to take responsibility for how we live our lives. And find changed ways that can lead to inner happiness. So, it gives us inner freedom to choose for ourselves whether or not to live a spiritual life.
Learning to do so unfortunately can sometimes involve tough lessons. We might learn the hard way creating unhappiness in ourselves and others by making selfish choices.
How the power of love reveals itself
True love does not wish to force anyone against their will to conform to its ways. Instead, it inspires and shows us the uplifting and deeply fulfilling delight of mutual concern.
For example, Christians believe the power of love is exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Like where he makes it clear how we should choose to respond to suffering. For example there is the story of the Good Samaritan which focuses on compassion for those who are in great need. Also the promised reward for all those who have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited those in prison, and cared for the sick.
So the power of love works in offering guidance and encouragement to support our learning to live better. And part of the learning is being confronted by the needs of others experiencing the set-backs, difficulties and hardships of daily life.
The risk of love
If we were to be programmed robots then we would only do good things. But being human beings with autonomy we make our own way. Sadly, with all our shortcomings and failings we have a tendency sometimes to make harmful choices. There is always this possibility. Causing difficulty, hardship or misery to others becomes a distinct possibility. On the other hand, also possible is joy, beauty, harmony, peace, contentment. And this surely is the intention behind the universe for us all.
You might see our freedom of choice as a tremendous risk. After all, we humans may not choose the way of love but rather the way of selfishness. Our preference may be to behave inhumanely in our dealings with each other. The natural world may be greedily exploited rather than respected. We might abuse or show contempt to the vulnerable instead of showing compassion. In other words, our freedom not to love incurs a risk of suffering.
C.S.Lewis, who wrote “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe“, pondered the issue of suffering. He came to understand that it is all about God allowing for human freedom. Because we are free to make bad decisions as well as good ones, suffering is unfortunate but inevitable. And so although the love of God does not desire suffering, he permits it for the sake of human freedom. It is a mistake to assume that whatever suffering God permits, he must want or cause.
There is much to change within the bodily minded attitude to life.
There is a further consideration. It is that there is no way anyone could be led out of their self-centred thinking, if a higher spiritual force prevented their greedy, envious, malicious thoughts. We cannot work to set aside what is undesirable in us unless it comes to light. One religious view is that God allows physical and emotional storms to strengthen the anchor; fires to test and harden our mettle. If there are going to be bodies with pain nerves, there is going to be pain.
“We are allowed to enter into some natural forms of distress in order that we “may be held back by means of them from self-love and love of the world into which ...(we) would otherwise plunge without any restraint.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)
The consequence of the divine spirit of love wanting our freedom is it cannot prevent pain, misfortune and hardship suffered as the result of any of our selfish choices. It can and does however provide spiritual guidance to show us the errors of our ways.
‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn from your statutes.’ Psalm 119: 71
Choosing acceptance and trust in a higher power
The Serenity Prayer well expresses the attitude of acceptance:
Lord, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Mindfulness teacher Vidyamala Burch says that mindfulness is the tool that can help do the last of these. When we are suffering from a chronic medical condition, Tim Stead, Christian minister, believes that the practice of mindfulness makes space for the God of compassion. He feels this spirit will come to us as we no longer mindlessly dwell on the thoughts about, and emotions resulting from, our pain.
Swedenborg says that Providence allows those, who are being changed, to feel a sense of loss. This is a humbling process. This temporary condition of dejection helps us realise the need to call upon transpersonal power for help. The unfortunate experience of anxiety and depression encourage us to acknowledge that we cannot hope to conquer the lower forces of the mind by our own power alone. In other words that in the face of deep adversity, self-sufficiency is a delusion.
The way I see it is that when I struggle against the forces of darkness and ask for help from above, a state of hope will replace my state of despair. Hope means re-experiencing a spirit of forgiveness from beyond myself. It means feeling a sense of self-acceptance despite the many mistakes I have unfortunately made. I will expect to feel I belong to a community of people with whose values and goals I can identify. Finding a sense of purpose through the setbacks and confusions of life will return to me.
Summary
Selfishness causes suffering. The divine power of love doesn’t stop but counterbalances self-centred tendencies with consideration for others and kind impulses. In this way, human freedom whether or not to be selfish is preserved.
“They may receive the perception of good and truth, which perception they are not able to receive until those false persuasions originating in what is their own are so to speak softened. And it is the state of distress and grief even to the point of despair that effects this change. “ (Emanuel Swedenborg)
Copyright 2022 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Author of Heart, Head & Hands Swedenborg’s perspective on emotional problems
