I’ve been spending so much time on my book that I haven’t taken the time for this blog. But finally I finished a rough draft of the book, so now I can return to the blog. For chapter 5, I enjoyed quoting from M. L. King and Karen Armstrong.
This chapter, of course, is about the 5th Step in the 7-step agape prayer practice. It is the most difficult step to learn, but it is also the most important step for the future of the human race. It is about holding in prayer an enemy -- and not just a personal enemy, but there is an extension of this step that involves holding in prayer an enemy of the nation. So the purpose of this step is to practice letting the flow of agape help you want the well-being of this enemy equally as strongly as you did for the persons you chose for the other steps. In order to accomplish this, you need to visualize participating with this person in the spiritual flowing of agape until finding the spiritual concern that this chosen person will find personal well-being and deep sense of peace.
Here are a few excerpts from this chapter:
As you did in Step 4, spend a few minutes thinking about why there is that difference in attitude between how you feel toward a friend, a family member, a stranger, and a hostile person. Of course, here we have to deal even more strongly with the realization that our attitude toward the other person makes no difference in this prayer practice. That’s why it’s important to constantly remember that agape does not originate with you.
The point of realizing the spiritual basis of agape is that not only are humans created with agape in their heart-center, but as agape works in people’s lives, they find that the deepening of relationships is a divinely-inspired action (is that why John’s section on the Last Supper showed Jesus giving his special teaching that agape is the basis of his “new COMMANDMENT”?). So the power of agape has the full spiritual weight of being given to human beings by God. Therefore, God’s gift of agape has the purpose of helping people become divinely inspired to treat all people equally. So that’s how it becomes possible for you to find the divine power of human relations pouring into your heart.
Even though the existence of spiritual agape in everyone’s heart is the basic reality of human existence, that is not readily understood by a lot of people today. Unfortunately in the modern world a lot of people expend too much psychological energy trying to deny that basic reality of human existence.
A main outcome of these steps is for us to think of people equally and then let agape so transform our approach to relationships that we are able to treat people equally. Isn’t that what Jesus meant when he talked about God treating all people equally? (“For God makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you show agape only for those who show agape to you, what reward do you have?” … Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you. If you share agape with those who share agape with you, why should you be commended?” (Mt. 5:45-48; Lk. 6:35 CEB))
And of course, we have this teaching from Jesus: “But I say to you, share agape with your enemies and pray for those who harass you because of your faith so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. … Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing agape to everyone, so also you must be complete. … Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. … Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” (Mt. 5: 7-39; 44-48 CEB)
