Henri Nouwen on substituting love

I am beginning to think that every new Christian should read Nouwen....he is climbing up there with C.S. Lewis in my opinion as essential Christian thinkers. This Nouwen quote is courtesy of inward/outward.

clipped from www.inwardoutward.org What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life…. The long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led…. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.