Faith: Agreeing with Love
“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’“(Matt. 22:36-39)
In my Christian faith the directive is simple, yet the struggle is real. I’m called to love God and people, but to be honest, it’s much easier to just love my own life and what’s important to me! I’m aspiring to love God with everything I’ve got because He keeps loving me despite my failings. But people? People are a lot harder. They won’t always love you back!
It’s easy agreeing with love. However, giving mental ascent and actually living it are two different things. I’ve had to consider what this love Jesus speaks about really is. An emotion? A feeling? Maybe in part, but I’m discovering that His kind of love is so much more than the emotion I feel. “Love is patient and kind…” attitudes that I can choose, even when my emotions aren’t feeling it.
Yet, while agreeing, I have all kinds of uncomfortable objections within myself. What if it costs me something? What if it’s inconvenient? What if I don’t agree with what a person stands for? What if they’re gross? Or try to take advantage of my kindness? What if I’m too tired to deal with it? Or just don’t want to go out of my way? What if they retaliate or respond in a way I don’t expect? What if I don’t have enough to give or they don’t reciprocate? What if I just want to be left alone? What if…what if…what if? The objections I wrestle with don’t seem to have a limit, especially when faced with someone who doesn’t inspire loving feelings in me. But the call to love is not influenced by my objections.
The choice to love is mine to make. I don’t have to go with my first reaction when facing something in someone I don’t care for or comprehend. I can override my initial impulses to push away, get away, or engage in an unpleasant confrontation. I don’t have to circle the wagons to protect my point of view, be dismissive, or criticize something I don’t understand or agree with. But I can choose to shut down an unloving attitude within myself rather than shut someone else down. I have the choice and power to follow the lead of the One who loves me with an eternal, constant, unconditional love, and face others with patience and kindness. I can decide to give preference to another, listen with a non-judgmental ear, empathize with someone that’s not like me, give where there is lack, and not speak ill about someone. Choosing to love isn’t always comfortable, but loving people is always the right thing.
The bottom line is that loving God and people will cost me something of myself. It will, at times, infringe on my comfort and require putting someone else’s needs before my wants. It doesn’t necessitate changing people who are different from me. It does mean my focus must shift from living life as the center of my universe to realizing that we’re all in the mix together, this multitude of humanity that’s been created by the Divine One for the divine, each coming from our unique human experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and opinions, toward our common need for unconditional love. And within that mix, giving love where love is needed is always God’s heart.
Because I love God I want to love what’s important to Him. What’s important to Him is people. All of them. Am I always successful? Absolutely not! Am I willing to keep trying? Most of the time. I don’t want to fail at loving, but when I do I’ll try and try again. It’s not possible to love God without loving people, so I choose to love because He first loved me.
“Love is patient and kind...is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude...does not demand its own way...is not irritable...keeps no record of being wronged...does not rejoice about injustice... rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Cor. 13:4-7)