What about the people closest to us? I think sometimes they are the hardest people to know how to love. How do we love the in-laws (mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers)? How about the neighbor who lets his dog bark all night, sweeps his leaves into your yard and yells at your kids? How do we be Jesus to the kid at the gas station, or the barista at the coffee shop? What does the Love of Jesus look like manifested to your waitress, the grocery clerk?
I would say that most people have thought about these things, but how many of us actually implement the ideas into our daily lives? I have spent more time than I know on thinking great thoughts, but when it comes to actively loving and being Jesus to people, it becomes more difficult.
We still feel entitled to our rights to be right, to be offended, annoyed or simply detatched from the people we encounter daily. People we don’t engage with are people we don’t have to invest in. It’s easier and safer, but I know that Jesus called us to more than that. He has called us to love our neighbor, to regard others as higher than ourselves and give up our rights in order to pick up His cross and follow him.
I want to lay down my rights, but admit that there are defintely plenty of times that I hold on to them white knuckled, unwilling to lay them down in humility. If I allow the Lord to reign in my life and I stop fighting for my rights, even when they seem justified, then I risk someone else thinking they are right, when they are wrong. That is why I don’t like letting go. Pretty selfish. I don’t people to think that I admit to being wrong! Sometimes I am, sometimes I am not.
But, honestly, it just doesn’t matter. God will work on their hearts, just as he is working on my heart. Do I really trust that he loves me enough to call me to greatness in him, and that he is also doing the same with others? Am I willing to believe that the unified body of Christ is the great plan of God, and for us to be unified, we have to lay down our rights?
Lord, help me let go of all the things that keep me from loving others, from those close to me to those who are further away and distanced from me. Teach me in humility and grace. Open my eyes each day to the people around me who are hungry for your love. I pray that they would be touched by your love, but Lord take me futher than that. May they be touched with your great love through me. A smile, a sincere question and interest in their life, grace when anger is expected. I don’t know all that lies ahead of me today, but let me see with your eyes and heart.
