12.09.2007

Love as Choice

Radiant~

In his book Return from Tomorrow, George Ritchie talks about meeting a man who'd been a prisoner in the concentration camp where Ritchie was sent as a soldier right at the end of WWII. He talks about the amazing compassion "Wild Bill" had for all his fellow prisoners and how he was regarded as a friend to all. Wild Bill even counseled others to forgive the Germans for the atrocities they'd been through, and said this:

"We lived in the Jewish section of Warsaw. My wife, our two daughters, and our three little boys. When the Germans reached our street they lined everyone up against a wall and opened up with machine guns. I begged to be allowed to die with my family, but because I spoke German they put me in a work group. I had to decide right then whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people's minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. 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."

Ritchie continues: "Loving every person...this was the power that had kept a man well in the face of every privation. It was the Power I had first met in a hospital room (during a Near Death Experience) in Texas, and was learning little by little to recognize wherever He chose to shine through - whether the human vehicle was aware of Him or not."

Here's to Love - to the will to love, to the choice of love, to our hearts opening wide and spilling out love during the moments of our lives. May the story of Wild Bill be another way God uses to point me to his Truth.

2 comments:

Keren said...

This is what divine forgiveness is all about.
Love is our nature, our divine nature. It is the sleeping power within all of us.

Loving your enemies, particularly someone who has done you and/or your loved ones bodily harm, truly is an act of God's Love working through you.

Even "loving" people who dont love you or dont even like you is tough and takes strength. "Love anyway" like Mother Theresa said.

Ive been pondering "Strength" ... which I've read - simply put - can be viewed as obedience to our Divine Nature - which is Love.

Thanks Anne,

Peace
Keren

Marilyn Ruth said...

Hi! I am not writing much lately, but am surely enjoying everyone else's writing.

Thanks Anne and Keren,

marilyn :)