SA Leadership 2 We must find leaders ready to risk the way of love Part two - conclusion

Chaos and cosmos

IN SOME ways the words cosmos and chaos are in contrast. The Macquarie Dictionary defines the cosmos as ‘the world or universe as an embodiment of order and harmony (as distinguished from chaos)’. 

The poet Percy Shelley wrote of the great morning of the world when God dawned on chaos. But although God is the Author of the order so marvelously evident in the movement of stars and the processes of nature there is also a disruptive evil power which causes chaos in the world and that is manifested in many ways.

Across the world there is a spiritual war on - a war of ideas, a war against selfishness, a war in which the weapons required are not carnal but spiritual. And in this conflict the leaders who are needed must themselves be part of the answer and

not part of the problem. In a sense they must be representative of a new humanity. They must embody those characteristics which will make for peace and harmony.

But is this merely idle dreaming, pious claptrap? Well, if this isn’t the answer what is?

Must we conclude that there is no solution and that the self-extinction of the human race is all that is on offer? There is that in the human spirit would reject such an idea and I would nail my colours to the mast and declare that I believe in hope!

The way the world will end is not with a bang or a whimper but with a triumph!

But how? B. H. Streeter said, ‘A race that has grown up intellectually must grow up morally or perish. But how can that happen?

Bertrand Russell was a great philosopher and a brilliant scholar although, unfortunately, not a Christian. On his eightieth birthday he was asked what the world needed. He replied rather surprisingly perhaps, ‘The root of the matter is a very simple and old fashioned thing, a thing so simple and old fashioned that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which the cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean - please forgive me for mentioning it - is love, Christian love’.

There is a fable about a cold, hard piece of metal. A great hammer came along and said, ‘I’ll break it!’ but only succeeded in breaking its own handle. A saw came and said, ‘I’ll cut it!’ but only managed to break its own teeth. Then a little flame came along and asked timidly, ‘May I try, please?’

And the little flame wrapped itself around the iron, warmed it and finally melted it. So too, the flame of love may triumph when all else fails.

The writer of the Proverb at the head of this chapter said that it will take leaders with understanding to straighten things out. More than anything else, they need an understanding of the power of agape - that special kind of love which is

deep enough and tough enough to overcome the enormous difficulties which lie in the path of peace and goodwill. There will be those will scoff at the very idea even as some ridiculed the teaching of Jesus Christ who epitomised such love. But his way cannot be bettered.

The danger in highlighting the need for leaders with understanding is that many may feel that the challenge is for certain special people and not for themselves.

They may feel that there is little they can do to make a difference. In fact, we can all do something. But because we cannot do everything it doesn’t mean that we can do nothing.

Dabak is a young woman I know who works as much loved chaplain at an aged care facility in Australia. When she was a baby her parents died and later she became sick and was left to die on a rubbish tip in Malaysia. She suffered from

malnutrition and became permanently blind. Eventually she was taken into a children’s home run by Christian missionaries but as she grew older she because disturbed by lack of information about her parentage.

Then she came to Christian faith and also learnt about her family background.

Today, although blind she is married, a minister, a linguist, a pianist and adept at arts and crafts. A striking skill is with jigsaw puzzles. With her extremely sensitive sense of touch she can take a pile of puzzle pieces and fit them together until they form a beautiful picture. That parallels what has happened in her life and points to what

leaders with understanding can do to bring form and beauty out of chaos.

Perceptiveness and sensitivity can work wonders.

G. K. Chesterton said that it was not that Christianity had been weighed in the balance and found wanting but that it had been found difficult and not tried.

No one should imagine that the answers to complex problems will always be simple or that overcoming prejudice will be easy. Racial hatreds and vested interests will not yield without a struggle, but unless we are to sink in the swamp of despair we must find - and perhaps ourselves be - leaders ready to risk the way of love.

Commissioner Wesley Harris with Princess Anne
1990 Official opening of THQ, NZ

Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 24, April 2003 - May 2003