Week 12—Thursday Matthew 5:23-26
Matthew 5:23-26
“I’VE FOUND MY FATHER AGAIN”
We have been studying love as the deepest thing in humans and the sovereign remedy for all our ills. Dr. Erich Fromm, who in his personal view of life leaves God out, nevertheless says, “Love is the answer to the problems of existence.” The weakness of his position is that love has no cosmic backing—it is not rooted in God, hence it is a frail flower growing out of human soil. Even with that handicap Fromm, as a psychiatrist, sees that “love is the answer to the problems of existence.” Take some very tangled problems and see how the skillful hands of love untangle them.
Estelle Carver tells of a very intelligent and beautiful girl who was filled with hate for her father. She hadn’t spoken to him for five years. “I could gladly kill him.” Estelle Carver said, “Will you go home and pray the prayer: ‘God bless Daddy?’” “I couldn’t,” she replied. But she did. One day he stood with his back to the fire. Obeying an impulse she ran and threw her arms around him. They wept in each other’s arms. “I’ve found my father again. I’m so happy and so is he,” she wrote. A note from the father: “I understand you have been the instrument of our reconciliation. I thank you.” Restrained, but it told worlds. There was simply no way out of that tangle except one way—love. A human love, buried, was brought to life by a divine love through prayer.
Here was a woman ill for fifteen years, twenty-eight hospitalizations. She was full of resentments, but she gave them up and was cured and is well. A lack of love wrought havoc. Love cured her. Here was a wife who was very suspicious of her husband. But she found she was wrong about him. She went to him and confessed it on her knees. They went into each other’s arms. He has never touched liquor since. Love cured him—and her—and them!
In one of our Ashrams, a little boy of six and a little girl of five came across the dining room hand in hand and said, “Brother Stanley, may we ask you a question? What is the Christian attitude?” I could scarcely believe my ears! But I replied: “To love everybody, everywhere.” They said “Thank you” and walked back hand in hand.
O God, forgive me that I use infected hands in dealing with human problems—infected by methods other than love. Wash my hands, my heart, my life in the disinfectant of love that I may be healing in every situation I touch. Wash me thoroughly. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Washed, I shall wash every situation today with the disinfectant of my love.