“All you need is love,
Er Taraprasad Mishra
JAJPUR, NOVE 8 : Well-known Sapatha social Organization virtually felicitated Public Works Department Chief Engineer Taraprasad Mishra for their work as Covid warriors. The engineer despite the shutdown toured various areas in the district and took stock of the ongoing development projects.
Besides, they carried out various social activities like distributing masks, sanitisers and free food to the needy people .Eng Mishra. “All you need is love, love, love, love is all you need.” Theses famous words were sung by a group of young men embodying a time in which love was the driving force behind the youth in revolt.
Theses young minds motivated by “free love” were enlightened when they spoke of the influential power of love.
They realized that if hatred could drive brothers apart and create total annihilation while leaving a wake of destruction its path then by the laws of the natural world its polar opposite but equal. I lay my head on the pillow, soft cotton against my cheek like the palm of a mother’s hand, but I can’t be soothed.
Even when I close my eyes, when the blackness comes, I can still see the fists raised, the tears shed, the blood drops on the ground. In this noisy, broken world with the news headlines and the neighbors drawing lines and the threats on the horizon, none of us can escape the question: How am I to respond? It seems the easiest answer is to throw the next punch, write the next rant, hold the switchblade of our opinions up to the neck of our opposers so they know we mean business.
This is our instinct, the animal inside us that is about claws and teeth and growling. It’s what awoke in the Apostle Peter when soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
“Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear”. It’s this odd detail in a familiar story, never ever shown on any Sunday School flannel board, that keeps echoing through my mind.
I finally pause and consider, What happens when you cut off someone’s ear? I understand in a flash: the person can no longer hear you. This means so much more has been cut off too—communication, understanding, reconciliation, relationship.
It’s this odd detail in a familiar story, never ever shown on any Sunday School flannel board, that keeps echoing through my mind. I finally pause and consider, What happens when you cut off someone’s ear?
I understand in a flash: the person can no longer hear you. This means so much more has been cut off too—communication, understanding, reconciliation, relationship. I don’t think this means we aren’t to fight the darkness.
But I do believe it means we are to understand there’s a time and place and different way to do so. After Peter swung the sword, Jesus still got arrested.
He went to trial, stretched out on a cross, rose from the grave. In doing so, He fought (and won) the greatest battle ever. Here’s what stands out to me: None of this involved ear-slashing, shouting or even sneaky finger-pointing.
Instead Jesus fought with love. Not the fluffy, cotton-candy kind. No, the sort that is willing to be laid wide open, to sacrifice, to reach out to even our enemies.
Love is still the most powerful weapon in the world. He also fought with gentleness, which we so often misunderstand. It’s not weakness or fear; it’s strength under control. “A gentle tongue can break a bone” (Proverbs 25:15). “Always be gentle toward everyone” (Titus 3:2).
Don’t be fooled: Gentle is tough as nails. Jesus, too, chose kindness. Even on the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Being kind is not the same as being “nice.”
Niceness is about pleasing people, kindness is about choosing to treat others as creations of God, whether they deserve it or not. “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). Kindness is grit in the trenches with grace. The clock reads midnight, the darkest part of night, the start of a new day.
I whisper a prayer tucked under the sheets, “God, help me be a Fiercehearted woman who lives and loves and battles like You do.” I don’t want to be an ear-slasher. I want, through Jesus, to be a heart-healer, difference-maker, chain-breaker. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does” Said Eng Mishra
