It is really easy to love people who love you back. It is really hard to love people who could conceivably always find a reason to hate you. That is maddening. Infuriatingly frustrating. Hate and righteous indignation seem to be a lot more empowering in the face of that kind of thing. Jesus loved the Pharisees and the Priests. Jesus was obedient to the powers that hated him, but he wasn't afraid to keep knocking on the door. He kept inviting them to be true to themselves. Jesus taught us to love the unlovely, exactly as it is. If we simply love that which is worthy of love, we will never love at all. You cannot love someone for who you think they could become. That's a cop-out. The only way you can love someone is to love them as they are today. Because of their maddening and infuriatingly frustrating ways we must love.
There is a balance to be had in loving someone who will always hate you no matter what you do or say. I really wish I knew what that balance looks like.
4 comments:
Katy, if you should happen to find that balance, please let me know.
It's very frustrating and the most difficult thing we are ever asked to do.
Been there ... done that ... got the tee-shirt.
I agree with Jo about it being the most difficult thing we're ever asked to do. Jesus was full of paradoxes - I look at love and fear as two sides of the same coin - the mixture that we come up with sometimes is not rational. Speaking of coins, I believe Jesus used the imagery around money (and taxes) more than any other. It points to man's primary survival techniques, and frustrating ones to boot. He did not love power in any realm, political or private. He was a radical to the nth degree - so many lessons can be applied today. One, for example, would be what he called the dangers of "fine" grinding of the law, man's law, as opposed to God's. We certainly have that fine grinding going on today evidenced by 70,000 plus pages of regulations - saw a photo posted of the piles of papers, and those aren't even the laws!
This is a very thoughtful post Katy - I'm going to be pondering it the rest of the evening!
The nice thing about being me is that I can rarely remember why I don't like someone. If I spend time with them again the slate is clean & I'm predisposed to like them. The bad thing about being me is that I relearn over & over why I don't like a person. Sigh.
Katy -
I'm playing catch-up on your blog and I'm enjoying it immensely!
Margaret
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