Here it is, Y'all: Love Changes Things

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

Hot take: If a literal Satan exists and is a fallen angel, maybe the point of all this is to let him see how even mere humans can choose love over evil, and thus bring him to his own decision of transformation into good.

From this concept, we can derive the following: That is why even an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God wouldn't regularly intervene with "bad" people - because we are basically supposed to love them into being good! Not by force or trickery or coercion, but through transformation of the heart and soul, which comes by learning - and experiencing firsthand - unequivocal compassion and love. 

Love is transformative. Ever have that feeling of being a new person, significantly different from who you used to be, and you can't fully remember firsthand how you used to be? That is new life, which comes after a life-changing experience. And this can happen multiple times in your life, as you receive altruistic care or are demonstrated this power of love.

What would we learn if God just intervened all the time? We'd learn that there's a magical sky genie who will swoop in to fix everything no matter what we do. 

And we would never change or grow, or try to understand other people better, or try to make connections with people who are different than we are. We would be existing, but we would not be Living. 

The rules of power don't have room for love, compassion, or any other things that oppressive, self-centered power considers "weakness." But love changes the game! God - Love - makes room. Our belief in - and our faithfulness to - our past-all-understanding connection with each other makes room. Room for their own existence, room for love - these things are the same. 

This is the good news Jesus was teaching. That by radically loving our neighbor and our enemy, we can change hearts. We can change relationships. We can gain perspectives. We can even change the overarching systems that have been built to harm and oppress on a wide scale, and thus bring the kingdom of heaven - that Divine vision of justice and love for all - to earth here and now.