I have been thinking a lot about someone I've known for a few years. This person is known to be habitually unlikeable. However, as a follower of Christ I am called to love this person regardless of how I am treated or how I might "feel". Luke 6:32 reminds us: "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." OK, that's definitely a challenge, and I am by NO means an expert at this. I get the same feelings of resentment and indignation as everyone else. But how am I going to love on a group of Hondurans who live seemingly a million miles away if I don't first do the same here?
This challenge to love extends even further to those who intentionally wrong us, abuse us, harm us, and attack us. How are we to truly love people who are our enemies? Since we are incapable of being sinless people, we look to Jesus for his response of love: to the woman at the well, to the crippled, to the poor. This can be so much easier said than done. How many of us feel love and compassion for someone like, say, Casey Anthony? How about Osama bin Laden?
I think we are so prone to making judgment calls based on what we know, which is really so very little, in the grand scheme of things. I believe that there is great depth to people, so much so that we could spend our whole lives with one person and only scratch the surface of what lies beneath. Maybe our fear is that, if we spend enough time walking in another man's shoes, we might actually find something in common with our "enemy"...and what would that say about us?
And how do we conjure love without the expectation of reciprocity? Luke 6:33 reminds us that "if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same." We must be prepared to show compassion when there is no possibility we will receive the same. The true earthly reward is serving God, modeling our behavior after his Son. "Rather, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind even to ungrateful and evil people." (Luke 6:35).
I want to challenge myself with love every day, with every bitter thought or negative stain that crosses my pea-brain. I want to truly love people as Christ loved people, without boundaries or stipulations. There are challenges that lay ahead greater than I can possibly imagine, and my weapon of choice has to be love. What's yours gonna be? :-)
