The workman who drops his tools at the stroke of twelve, as suddenly as if he had been struck by lightning may be doing his duty,—but he is doing nothing more. No man has made a great success of his life or a fit preparation for immortality by doing merely his duty. He must do that,—and more. If he puts love into his work, the ‘more’ will be easy.

The nurse may watch faithfully at the bedside of a sick child as a duty. But to the mother’s heart the care of the little one, in the battle against death, is never a duty; the golden mantle of love thrown over every act makes the word “duty” have a jarring sound as if it were the voice of desecration.

When a child turns out badly in later years, the parent may say, ‘Well, I always did my duty by him.’ Then it is no wonder the boy turned out wrong. ‘Doing his duty by his son’ too often implies merely food, lodging, clothes and education supplied by the father. Why, a public institution would give that! What the boy needed most was deep draughts of love; he needed to live in an atmosphere of sweet sympathy, counsel and trust. The parent should ever be an unfailing refuge, a constant resource and inspiration, not a mere larder, or hotel, or wardrobe, or school that furnishes these necessities free. The empty boast of mere parental duty is one of the dangers of modern society.” ~ William George Jordan

Dutiful service devoid of love tips the scales from living to merely existing. A soldier who fights out of nothing more than a sense of duty and in return for a paycheck is missing the fulfillment that comes from fighting for love of country. A parent who dutifully slaves away in his life in order to discharge his responsibilities as a father while ignoring the powerful currents of love available to any father anywhere is missing the point of parenthood. A child who dutifully follows his parents wishes while harboring spite and resentment against them is likewise short-circuiting his experience of the joy that comes only as life is lived to its fullest.

To live, to truly live, you must learn to let love radiate from within outward in relation to the specific points of connection in your field of responsibility. Love comes in many forms. It may be a kind and gentle word of encouragement. It may be a stern warning to save a loved-one from future suffering. It may be effusive and far reaching or quiet and intimate, for love is not limited by space or time. Love is the power behind all that is.

That said, the power of love can be misused. It is perhaps an initially strange to think that love is the power behind every good and every ill thing on the planet, but love is the only power there is. Like the energy stored in an atom (which is incidentally one of love’s many forms of manifestation), it can be put to constructive or destructive use.

Free will is the ability to direct the power of love in the direction of your choosing. Free will, in fact, is your highest duty. If you express the power of love in a way that is consistent with nature of love, then you are immediately united with your higher nature. If, on the contrary, you distort the power of love as it moves through you, then you will immediately feel the discomfort and tension that comes when your outer function not aligned with your inner higher nature.

The right use of free will releases an enormously powerful creative force through you that intensifies all things. The careful and thoughtful discharge of duty builds a firm framework in you that we often refer to as “character.” Character is the structure in you that allows for the safe and targeted release of love into the world around you. In the absence of sufficient character, the power of love cannot be safely contained. If you’ve ever wondered why it was so important to build character, it is for this reason: to safely handle the power of love as it moves through you out into the world you center.

As you learn to handle your free will responsibly, you find that everything you express, regardless of how it may appear to others on the outside, can be harmonious with the nature of love while being powered by love. Love is more than what appears in poems and on Hallmark cards. Love is more than a passionate affection for another person. Love powers the world, but human beings have the ability to use it wisely or squander it at every turn. Man is a being of free will and each man is potentially good or evil.

In one sense, we don’t need more love. Instead, we need more people who know how to steward the love that is ever-present and available in abundant supply.