the tough call

Concrete Love

Henri J. M. Nouwen

I find it difficult to conceive of a more concrete way to love than by praying for one's enemies. It makes you conscious of the hard fact that, in God's eyes, you're no more and no less worthy of being loved than any other person, and it creates an awareness of profound solidarity with all other human beings.... And you'll be delighted to discover that you can no longer remain angry with people for whom you've really and truly prayed.

Source: Letters to Marc About Jesus

These are the things that seem so tough for us to do. How do we love in the moment or even after the "moment"?

We "I" can place myself in a self righteous bubble and forget about my commitment to God and His kids. He loved me when I couldn't find the strength, energy or reason to do so myself.

As I spoke about in the blog about the C& E'ers, we must learn to love everyone all the time. It is not to say that you won't get upset or even a bit worse. Our initial energy needs to be spent on loving them.

As Henri says, Love can be just praying for someone. I know that there are several people that I feel quite angry with. Do I want to be anywhere near them right now - NO!- Am I called to love them - YES! - 

How can I do this if I can't get near them? I can lift them up in prayer. To pray that God might show us how to calm the current storm in our lives. Sometimes I have to pray just to trust enough to leave the situation alone. To be able to walk away from those things that are annoying me.

In my current situation I have prayed for the heart of Christ to be present, He has. I have been close to the persons that have wronged me and God's grace fell upon my lips. I spoke respectfully to these people. I gave them the love of Christ. I did not give them what I felt they deserved. That is only possible through prayer. Trust me I am no saint, it was clearly God intervening in my life at those moments.

Today, can we pray for someone that we "hate" or dislike. Maybe someone who has wronged you in the past. Can we at least take care of our side of the street, by not holding grudges and stop holding on to those things that tear us up inside. You cannot make someone else respond to you in a way that you feel worthy of, you can however control what and how you respond to them and others.

If we do this thing right, we might just get out of here alive.