Thoughts for another day

August 22, 2006

Today's verse: Mt. 5:44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (KJV).

I am led today by the Spirit of God to write on a subject which disturbs me quite a bit and also because I believe I need this more than anybody else.

In the Sermon on the mount, the magna carta for Christian living, Jesus unfolds the Kingdom way. In it you have quiet a few shockers and ways of doing things, as in today’s verse: ‘Love your enemy’. Equally disturbing are, ‘Bless them that curse you’ and ‘Pray for them that use you for their gain and persecute you.’ No mincing words but plain and simple, love your enemies…

And really, how difficult it is. How can you love a person who has hurt you and put you in pain? How can you have sympathy for a person who has never had sympathy on anybody cursing them all? The questions go on. But the Word of God is clear. It just asks us to do it, if we reverence our God. But really, honestly, from the bottom of my heart I can say, it requires tremendous, tremendous inner strength to do. I recently had a situation where someone wronged me. I left the situation to God, but prayed, ‘Lord, vengeance is Yours, so extract maximum vengeance on that person.’ But, God led me to pray for that person and very unwillingly and giving God some condition, I did.

Later, I was thinking, why do we harbor grudge? Why do we want to extract revenge? Because, we feel we are made to look small by the offender? Because, we are insulted in front of others? Because our prestige is pricked? And then, the picture of Jesus flashed in my mind. Ridiculed, mocked, spat upon, jeered, reviled, humiliated and crucified. The Greatest given the worst! Yet, He said, Father forgive…Why? Because He wanted you to do the same.

When we rise above the mean things that human beings do, we prove ourselves truly great. Not when we try to defend our puny bubble of a pride. When we can look at the eye of our offender and say, I forgive, is a moment of great strength. Reflection of divinity in a way. There is a wonderful feeling inside, a lightness, indescribable. Truly Paul was right when he said, ‘conquer evil with good’. Want to experience the feeling? Go the person today (now if possible) and say, I forgive. Tell me what happens next…(By the way, if the person further insults you, no problem. Look at the joy in your heart and don’t be subdued by the crudeness of that person. After all, the Lord is happy with you, no?)