What would happen….
What would happen if we loved people when they make a bad decision instead of rubbing it in their face?
What would happen if a husbands and wives loved each other, faults and all?
What would happen if we learned to forgive, to accept that people aren’t perfect, and that we all mess up?
What if we put ourselves in other people’s shoes?
What would happen if we smiled at the person that was annoying us in the store?
What would happen if we just loved people period, no questions asked?
I think this might just be a better place with less people wanting to leave it at whatever cost.
Last night a group of us watched the movie Country Strong and I really got to thinking about this concept. There were so many times I saw how people just don’t love. The movie is set around Gwyneth Paltrow’s character and how she had gotten drunk and fell from a stage while she was 5 months pregnant. So many people in her life were holding that against her and not letting her live it down. Fans, or well not fans, sent her a box that had a baby doll with blood on it calling her a baby killer. There are so many times that I have seen people in my life or even in the news who have made a bad decision and then it seems like everyone is standing there ready to rub it in their face. Sometimes I think we forget that we all have made mistakes. It looks different for everyone; some may be small while others are life altering. In the end does it really matter? When Jesus laid out what the church is supposed to look like did he ever rub someone’s mistakes in their face? What do you think would have happened if he had yelled at the prostitute that came and cleaned his feet with her tears? What about Zacheiaus, what would have happened if he yelled at him and told him how horrible he was for stealing from his own people and being the scum of the earth as tax collectors were considered? Or better yet what about Paul before Jesus met him on the road to Damascus? When he was still Saul he was KILLING Christians. He wasn’t just a sinner as Paul says he was the chief of sinners. He was religious to a T and everyone different from him was wrong and anyone who followed this Jesus character had to be stopped because they were threatening his faith. What if Jesus called him a murderer, and then rubbed all his mistakes in his face? Do you really think we would still have the faith we have today? Paul went and spent his life spreading the Gospel and reached thousands upon thousands of people and brought them love and salvation through the name of Jesus Christ. He is also the author of most of the New Testament.
It is through love and forgiveness that Jesus reached us when we were dead to sin. It wasn’t through guilt and shame that we knew we were loved and sons and daughters of the King of Kings. It was only through love that we saw that we weren’t a lost cause, broken beyond repair, or beyond redemption. Think about how much Jesus forgives you every day and how much He wants you to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, as in the people that are all around you not just the person that lives in the house next door. I have to remember this myself. I find it hard to love the people who don’t love because it seems like a no brainer to me, but we are all different. God made us all with different eyes to see the world in different ways. If everyone saw the world in the same way we would miss A LOT of the beauty that He has created for us.
I challenge you to join me in choosing to love that person that is hard to love. Actually lets go one step farther than that. Go to the person that you have seen make a mistake, no matter how big or small, and encourage them that it will be ok. Forgive them even if it didn’t directly affect you and encourage them to either make better decisions or to fix it. I have family members who have messed up time and time again, they know what they did wasn’t right and they live with that. They don’t need us to remind them every day that they have messed up; they need us to love on them and help them to learn and grow from this. Be blessed and love on someone.
