I have to warn you, if you’ve headed over here for a laugh, you might be disappointed, but I encourage you stay anyway. What I have to say has been on my heart for a while and was reaffirmed this morning while I was reading from my Bible and journaling. I just felt the need to share.
I’ve seen a lot of posts on facebook and twitter and have been hearing a lot of people say that basically if someone isn’t “adding value” to their life, they don’t need them in it and will lose nothing by “dropping them.” I’m paraphrasing slightly, but you get the idea. I am also not excluding myself. I have often felt “justified” in cutting people out of my life because I found them too negative, selfish, boastful, or maybe they’ve even really wronged me.
This tendency doesn’t make any of us bad people, it makes us human. But here’s the thing, we have the capability to be better than that. God says so! In those moments when I feel I’ve been wronged and I think to myself, “they’ll get what’s coming to them,” God reminds me of the cross. What defines being wronged, more than a man who was brutally killed for crimes He didn’t commit, a man who was tortured beyond what we can fathom, for people who not only “didn’t add value” to His life, but took His life away?
We would all be in a whole heap of trouble if Jesus thought to Himself, “I don’t think I’m really going to go through with this, these people don’t add anything to my life, their absence in Eternity won’t really bother me.” Could you imagine if God didn't send Jesus and we really did get what was coming to us?
God’s greatest commandment is for us to love one another. I think sometimes we misinterpret that as love those who love you back, love those who make it easy to love them. What about loving those who don't deserve it, the same way we are loved by God?
Believe me, I know it’s not easy and we’ll continue to fail at this, but I just thought it might help to shift our perspective a little bit. The next time we feel justified in not being kind towards someone, who hasn’t been kind to us, or not going that extra mile because they wouldn’t do the same, we need to remind ourselves that we can love like Jesus loves.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
~Matthew 5:43-48
Xo,
Lauren
