We live in a world that is getting crazier and crazier by the minute. It looks as if many are going insane. For those cool, calm and collected enough to stand back and objectively observe, it doesn’t appear that the “insane” people know they are that way.
The world would say that we must fight them, subdue them, make them see our way. Jesus, our “Way,” didn’t do that when He was here. He chose a completely different path of submission to the insanity of His time. He went to the cross and forgave His enemy. And yet, after dying for our sins AND showing us the Way, he overcame the grave, defeated death, and outlives His killers.
What are we to learn from this? We are to forgive in order to defeat death. Could it possibly be that? What if we die in the process? Will we then be with Jesus in Paradise like the repentant thief on the cross next to Him? Are we supposed to submit to the enemy, thereby, defeating him in a way the world does not recognize? Are Christians supposed to handle conflict in a different way from the world? Are we supposed to fight and argue and snivel and roar and slash our claws at the enemy like the animals of the jungle? Or are we supposed to have so much faith in God’s Way, presented to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, that we, even joyfully, submit all to our enemies…even our lives? Jesus said to resist not evil. What could He have meant but this?
Is there even more we need to do? I believe there is. We need to love our enemies. Love is not something that happens by chance. It is a choice. We don’t evolve into greater lovers who are, through some superpower, now able to love the unlovable. Evolution has nothing to do with it. We choose to love and if we can’t, we ask the Lord for help and love our enemy anyway. Jesus would never ask us to love our enemy if it was all by chance. He said to love them so, without question, we must love them.
If the world says to do something one way, then, more than likely we should do it another way, God’s way. When someone is bombarding you with hate, turn their vitriolic ways around with love. And if that doesn’t do it, at least you’ve done your part in following God’s will. Eventually, love conquers all. Keep loving and have faith.
Oh, the Deep Deep Love of Jesus 