We Were Designed as Channels
There is a point in every spiritual journey where things must cease to be matters of information and become matters of invitation.
For a long time, my own understanding of the spiritual journey was that the ultimate objective was to understand love more deeply. Define it more clearly. Explain it more accurately. Gather the right ideas, the right concepts, the right language...And then, somehow along the way, a more subtle truth began to emerge:
Love was never intended to be understood. Love was intended to be moved.
“We love because He first loved us.”
- 1 John 4:19 (NIV)
Those five little words change everything if you sit with them long enough.
Love does not begin with you.
Love does not begin with your capacity for it.
Love does not begin with your personality.
Love does not begin with your relationships.
Love does not begin with your spiritual disciplines.
Love begins outside of you.
And then it flows.
Agape flows out of the heart of God.
Agape flows into you.
And then it flows out into the world.
This is not poetic.
This is not metaphorical.
This is an ontological reality.
A truth about how human beings are designed to work.
You were not created to produce love.
You were created to receive it and transmit it.
To be a channel.
To be a conduit.
To be a system designed for flow.
And this explains something we all know but few of us ever articulate:
When we try to produce love out of our own emotional resources, we exhaust ourselves.
When we try to maintain patience, generosity, forgiveness, or compassion through sheer willpower, it starts to feel burdensome, heavy-laden, forced, and even fake.
Because the system is being used in the wrong way. Love is not something that is self-generated.
Jesus teaches:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
- John 13:34 (NIV)
We usually interpret this as a call to action. Do better. Be better. Forgive more. But that is not what we're being told. What Jesus is telling us is that the pattern is already established.
As I have loved you.
- First, He received. Then He gave.
- First, He was held. Then He held others.
This is not about changing our behaviour. This is about installing a new operating system on the human experience.
And once you see it, you begin to see the areas where the system breaks down.
When I get impatient, it is because I have stopped receiving. When I get defensive, it is because I have been holding onto an identity that is dependent on external validation. When my love becomes transactional - giving in order to receive, withholding when the other person does not reciprocate - this is what it looks like when the source has been moved inward. It is subtle, but the consequences are huge because channels are not designed to be reservoirs, they are designed for flow.
Personal Reflection
:-) When I would have profound day dreams about my role in The Kingdom, I would often imagine a podcast setup called Audience of One (AO) where I would essentially look into the camera and just speak about the things that crossed my mind that week regarding the work that I am building - writing, teaching, creating space for others to grow and develop and so for. This blog is that in a sense, and what is becoming more and more obvious is the ease with which it is possible to start operating from output rather than overflow.
And sometimes, when fatigue appears on the scene - like it has recently - this fundamental question emerges: Am I giving from effort, or from flow?
To me, the distinction between the two is not about discipline. The distinction between the two is about proximity.
When I am near the source - near the wellspring of stillness, honesty, prayer, and reflection - love becomes less burdensome. Love becomes more expansive. Love becomes less forced.
When I am far from the source - when I am performing - my best efforts feel heavy.
This is not just true for leadership.
This is not just true for writing. This is true for family.
This is true for friends.
This is true for work.
This is true for how I respond to difficult people.
This is true for how quickly my patience wears off when I feel unseen.
The offer of Agape is not to do more.
The offer of Agape is to remain connected.
The power of this system is not within the channel.
The power of this system is within the source.
The Trusth, Architecturally 🙃
Every system within the natural world that supports life is a system of flow. The blood must flow.
The breath must flow.
Energy must be transferred.
Information must be shared. Interfere with that, and the system suffers.
Help it along, and it stabilises.
So it is with this.
When Agape is received, it is then possible to give without fear of running out.
When identity is established as being loved first, love does not have to make any concessions to be safe.
And that is why what Jesus is saying is not a guideline for how to live a better life.
It is a revelation about how human life is, period.
Receive.
Then give.
And stay connected.
Then remain open.
You were not created to admire God’s love from a safe distance.
You were created to participate in it, in willful reverence.
To allow it to flow through your patience. Through your work.
Through your decisions.
Through your responses to situations when no one is looking.
Not well.
Just constantly.
Because the final mystery of Agape is this:
The more it flows through you,
the more it becomes how you live.
Not how you live because you make an effort to.
Not how you live because you perform well.
Just flow.
One. Perfect. Love.
