Jesus says, "... love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." As our pastor said during his homily, this is not an easy message to hear. Sure, the concept is easy but the execution is difficult.
I certainly was having problems listening to this particular message today. Instead of focusing my mind and soul in prayer during church today, I was running my mind through things I could have said to the state legislators at yesterday's caucus. I had some zingers.
It was while I was in the depression of thinking about how ineffective anything I could have said would have been that our prayer of intentions was being said. One of the last in the list was for the Lord to help us learn to love those who make us upset, who disagree with us, and to work at keeping an open dialogue with them.
In truth, I wasn't ready to hear it. I would rather have those who disagree with me see the error of their ways and come to acknowledge the greatness of my beliefs ... oh ...
I don't know the best way out of this, but I need to stop thinking of anyone who disagrees with me as stupid or evil. It's a trap that I regularly fall into because it's so seductively simple. I need to learn to love as Jesus loves ... and I have a long ways to go.
I certainly was having problems listening to this particular message today. Instead of focusing my mind and soul in prayer during church today, I was running my mind through things I could have said to the state legislators at yesterday's caucus. I had some zingers.
It was while I was in the depression of thinking about how ineffective anything I could have said would have been that our prayer of intentions was being said. One of the last in the list was for the Lord to help us learn to love those who make us upset, who disagree with us, and to work at keeping an open dialogue with them.
In truth, I wasn't ready to hear it. I would rather have those who disagree with me see the error of their ways and come to acknowledge the greatness of my beliefs ... oh ...
I don't know the best way out of this, but I need to stop thinking of anyone who disagrees with me as stupid or evil. It's a trap that I regularly fall into because it's so seductively simple. I need to learn to love as Jesus loves ... and I have a long ways to go.
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