"Love God and He will enable you to love others
even when they disappoint you."
-Francine Rivers
Loving others is something that we are really good at, at
times, but terrible at other times. And that makes sense because we are
imperfect people who fail at many things, over and over again. Love is no
exception. For me (and i'm pretty sure this is the same for 99.999% of all
other people on earth), it's way easier to love people who show you love back.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not. The people who are kind,
encouraging, understanding, uplifting, and generous towards you are the ones
who we tend to be able to love back quicker and easier. That makes sense and
it's pretty simple that way. I've got friends who are all of those things I
have no trouble loving them.
However, there are also those people who are hard to love. I
mean like people who are super duper hard to love. They don't encourage you,
respect you, or treat you well. There's people you love who will disappoint
you. People who will tear you down. Who will betray you. Its sucks but that's life
and what happens. And guess what? We are supposed to love those people too.
Yep. How fair is that, right? To me, these are the people who need to be loved
the most. They need to be shown the love that God has shown us. They need to
see what it is like to be loved and they need an example how to love. How to
love others. All the time and in any circumstance. No matter what. Love like
Jesus loves. Show others the same love God (who is so perfect it's beautiful)
has shown to us (who are so imperfect it's ugly). We don't want to love the
girl who talked bad about us. The guy who broke our heart. The parent who tears
us down. The sibling who makes fun of us. The friend who betrayed us. The
teacher who is as mean as an ogre (except not like Shrek cause he's nice).
Those things are terrible and in my life, those kinds of people exist and have
hurt me and not shown me love. So why show them love back? Well, because Jesus tells
us to. And because Jesus DID. Love covers a multitude of sins.
Hold up just a second while I put this in perspective for
ya-"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Jesus chose to leave paradise with His
Father, and come to earth as a human. He chose to come live among the worst
people who would eventually beat him, deny him, mock him, betray him, and kill
him. He knew this when he chose to become man. He underwent the worst kind of
pain that any man has even known or experienced. He was hurt more than any man
has ever been hurt. Yet, he did it out
of love. He knew what man would do; what WE would do, but He loved us anyways.
How amazing.
That being said, we have a perfect example of love to
follow. We must spend every day of our lives trying to love like Jesus loves.
To every person, whether it's easy or hard. This is our call as Christians- to
love others. The Bible tells us to in case you don't believe me. "Beloved,
if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 john 4:11). Oh,
and here it is again- "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this
all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another” (john 13:34-35). If God tells you to love others, do it. Love them.
Show them love. You don't have to like make big flashy signs with cute hearts
that sing love songs and what not, you just have to show them you care about
them. Forgive them. Speak kindly. Say only nice things about them. Show them
Jesus. What you do will show them you love them. You can say “I love you”, but
if your deeds don’t match up, your words mean nothing. And odds are, they will
notice this and it will blow their minds. They will see that there is something
different in you. And that difference would be, Jesus. Live your life and love your fellow men NOT so
people see you and lift you up, but so they see Jesus and lift him higher. Let
your love bring glory to God and draw others to him as well.
God’s love for us is perfect, and yeah, we can’t love anyone
perfectly, but we can try. We can strive to be like Him and in the process,
others will Jesus and we will become closer to God. And that’s a win-win
situation! God loves us without selfishness, without second thoughts, without procrastination.
So should we. Love not for yourself or hope of being loved back by someone, but
because they need it and God commands it. Love without thinking, “hmmm maybe
not. They did hurt me really badly.” Love no matter what. Don’t wait to show
someone love. Do it now and do it intentionally. One act of love can brighten
someone’s whole day, or even their life. So love everyone. Because although it
may be hard, it is not impossible.
