Merciful Strength
The eighth saying of the Living Christ:
Take up my cross and follow me. Those who fear to lose their lives have lost them already. Fear cannot stand where love is strong. Fear is a thief that only enters through an unlatched door. If Love and Strength keep watch together, the thief finds no entry. True love casts out fear.
Remember also that love can bind strength. It can silence your words and stay your feet and open the way for fear to keep you from acting. When love cannot say no to harm, coercion, greed, or fear, strength withers on the vine and no fruit can grow. Do not let your kindness become a shroud that smothers your voice. Love that cannot say ‘No’ to the wolf is no shepherd to the sheep.
But if strength overwhelms love, cruelty and hate choke the vine at its roots. Mercy is not weakness. Mercy is the restraint strength learns from love. Discipline serves order, not life. Love teaches discipline to serve life.
Holy strength is tender, offering mercy and love. It stands its ground without coercion, violence, manipulation, or forced compliance. True strength is the force of the soul acting in peace, love, courage, truth, and justice. It serves life, dignity, and the restoration of all things.
Discipline arises from discipleship. It protects. It does not punish. It honors relationships and does not impose its own will. Discipline learns to act through love. Strength always seeks healing.
If you are going to have the strength to bring healing to yourself and to the world, you must discipline your actions through love. Restraint can be loving, but mercy does not rake the fruit of your deeds away like so many fallen leaves. You are strong when you remember why you practice restraint.
Heal your souls as your compassion tempers your judgment. Restore the world through mercy. True strength protects the vulnerable.