Loving Others is Easy...Except When it Isn't

1 John 4:7 reads "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

Loving people is so easy. I love my parents and I appreciate the life they gave me and continue to help give me. I love my sisters and the bond that we share. I love that no matter what friends come and go, they are my lifers. I love my grandparents and the 61 years of marriage that they have shown love to each other. I love that every single grandchild thinks he/she is the favorite. I love their endless, unconditional, never wavering love. I love my husband for the man that I know he is meant to be. I love that he is good to people. I love that he takes care of us. I love that in all our 21 years together, I have always been it for him. I love that I am his only. I love my kids and their good hearts. I love that they are beautiful inside and out. I love them for their brains too...they have big brains. I love when they love me. I love my church. I walked into that church to attend a wedding. One wedding became two, and then next thing I knew I was getting married in that church. Two years later, I attended my first service there and I just never left. I love that the building is home to me and the people are family. I love my friends. I love the friends that I never question their loyalty. I love the friends that are there for me when things get ugly in my life. I love that they will come to me and talk to me if I have done something wrong. People like that that aren't blood related are hard to come by. I love our ball family. Yes, they made it into this post, because they are a HUGE part of our life. When things are happening in my life, they are always there in the background just getting through life with us one game at a time.

Yea, loving people is easy...until it isn't. It's easy to say I love my parents and my sisters unconditionally. It's easy to say I love my husband and kids no matter what. My grandparents are never going to not feel loved by me. Past that, is it really that easy to love others? What about the friends who just didn't pan out? Do I have to love them too? What about the church goer who offends me on a regular basis...do I REALLY need to love that person? What about the softball parent that hurt my kid's feelings to make his or her kid look better...I can totally write that one off, right? Ok, so maybe loving EVERYONE isn't so easy after all. In fact, do I even love my family all the time? I mean, of course I love them but do I show them I love them all the time? Ouch.

As it turns out, maybe I am not loving as hard as I should. Actually, I know I'm not. My friend Hope gave me this shirt yesterday that said Love Others, and my first though was "well, except..." In fact, as a joke it was the first words out of my mouth. I went home (from church!) and felt incredibly guilty. What would possess me to literally blatantly disregard what God said. He said to love one another. He didn't say "love some people." He didn't say, "love only those who love you." He said, "LOVE ONE ANOTHER." Clearly I could use some work in that area.

I feel like so often I am just angry. With anger that isn't prayed through comes hate. Hate is not of God. Jesus spent His last days prior to His crucifixion SERVING people. He served Judas. Read that again. He SERVED JUDAS. He looked him square in the face and boldly served that man KNOWING that he would betray Him. He warned that He knew one would betray. Yet he still served Judas food and washed his feet. Guys...Jesus washed the feet of the "friend" who helped orchestrate His murder...and He KNEW. I am in awe of Christ's love. I could never give that kind of selfless love to anyone. I literally don't know if I could love anyone the way that he loved Judas. How about the way He loved the people who hung Him on that cross?

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." Luke 23:34 They were casting bids on the clothing the stripped from Him and he asked that they be forgiven. He didn't want them to suffer everlasting life in hell AS THEY WERE TORTURING HIM. I can't fathom that kind of love. My take away from that is to accept that I cannot control other people's hearts, minds, and actions, but I can control my own and love them anyway.

WE know that Jesus loved unconditionally. He showed it the whole time He was here on earth and the recording of his ministry gives record and a good guideline for how we should act. He also loved people when he was showing them they were wrong. He loves me that way even to this day. He has shown me how wrong I have been. He also still loves me. That's a hard lesson to teach my kids, and Jesus is still trying to teach me that lesson.

I say all this to say, while I will never achieve the greatness that was the Love of Christ, knowing that He was able to accomplish that love gives me hope. I can bite my tongue; I can smile instead of sneer; I can lend a helping hand with no expectation of anything in return; and i can try my best to love even when I don't want to. If He can do that, then that's what we should be at least trying to do. He doesn't expect perfection but a perfect effort. Lord I thank you for loving me even when I am unloveable.