"On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink." – Romans 12:20
Have you ever felt loved? Like….for real, TRULY loved? Not superficial "I love you right now as long as you act this way or think this way or do these things, but as soon as you aren't everything I want you to be, I'll be focusing my "love" elsewhere" love, but genuine "I care for your needs, I believe you have value, I erase all offenses, I accept you for you, I desire the best for you……..all while expecting nothing in return" love. I can tell you I've been on both sides of that statement (as you probably have also). And it took being on both sides for this post to come to fruition. It took standing on both sides of the fence, examining the greenness of the grass on each side, to receive this revelatious thought: God so LOVED the world.
There is in fact quite a large difference between being polite towards someone, and being loving towards them. This is very easily understood with a short trip to the nearest fast food restaurant. You walk in and are greeted with kind manners and gestures (well….most of the time…..all bets are off during lunch rush), the tone in conversation is of a tender manner, and their actions seem to be for your every benefit. Until the next customer comes in. It is then you realized that while you were treated very well, they we're and are simply being polite to you. The love wasn't felt, so to speak. (And I do realize there is a bit of a flaw in the example, as there are servers and hosts out there that go above and beyond politeness). It's pretty easy to discern the difference between being loved, and being treated with manners. We can all tell apart the people in our life who are polite to us (which, let me be clear, is not a bad thing), and the people in our life who are profoundly compassionate towards us. And so can the world.
God, seeing the sorrowful state of His love, His beautiful creation (us…for those keeping score at home), devised a plan to bring us back to redemption. And with every effort, He pursued (pursues) us. Giving everything, God offered His Son Jesus to take the punishment for the things we deserved. And when we accept and believe in God's loving redemption plan for our lives, we are granted eternal life! That's an example of love, especially as a Jesus follower, that doesn't hurt to be reminded of. And as Jesus followers, we are called to "LOVE our neighbors." Here's the thing though, some people are easier for us to love than others. Here's what I want you to do; make a list of all the people in your life who needed to feel God's love in 4 areas of life: School, Work, Home, Other, in order of easiest/most comfortable to get along with to hardest/least comfortable. Let's take Work for example. At the top of your list might be a co-worker you've worked with for a long time, or maybe a customer you've dealt extensively with and built up a strong relationship with. No doubt, for a lot of you, at the bottom of that list would be "that" co-worker…..or your boss :P ….just kidding….(maybe). As you create and examine your lists, you'll soon see that the people at the top of your list probably seem much more approachable and loveable (remember, the real kind) than those at the bottom. As I was pondering my list, and determining who at the top I would let God use me to love into next (ha…silly me for thinking like that!)…..I had this though: "Ya know, I probably wasn't exactly at the top of the "approachable and loveable" list when God came looking for me." Hmmmm….oh boy, here we go. Buckle up J
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