“The world is shaped by force. It is changed by love.”
I wrote this quick thought this morning reflecting on how I’ve best been affected and influenced in my own life. In the Marines, often we try and shape conditions by the amount of force we bring to bear for a targeted effect. It usually works…for the moment. However, if any effect is to be enduring, or continue beyond our own presence, it needs to be influenced by something greater than fear or respect for force. Love transcends awareness of the immediate and drives for a more distant goal and enduring “better.”
I’ve felt this in my own life. The good in me that endures and is best expressed is not that which is commanded or coerced but that which comes freely, from a desire to give, not from one to avoid a different effect.
Force shapes actions in the moment. Love changes the entire picture.