The following is the prayer at the end of my “Love is not always Easy” Blog. In the month that has followed, God has been answering this prayer in ways that I never expected.
God, I want to love effortlessly. I want a love that never grows tired. I want a love that is never finished finding ways to be expressed. I want a love that knows no boundaries and has no limitations. Help me to know and seek you more so that my love for others is built on the firm foundation of my relationship with You. Help me to love like You love. Give me a love that causes my heart to break in miserable situations and jump for joy in blissful ones. Let me never stop pursuing, never stop seeking, never stop loving! Amen
Loving like Jesus loves. Something that those of us who have spent any amount of time in Sunday School have been taught over and over again. It usually goes something like this:
Give money to the poor. Feed the hungry. Shelter the homeless. Hang out with beggars and tax collectors and prostitutes. Help those in need. All of which have relatively easy, tangible ways of attaining this status of loving as Jesus loves: Giving monthly donations to a charity. Helping out at your local food pantry or homeless shelter. Going out on the streets and talking to the women who are working there about God. (Or go on the world race and accomplish them all in one day of ministry.)
Seen in this way, loving like Jesus loves is simple. Straightforward. Easily Attainable.
But what happens when loving like Jesus loves looks more like this:
Continuing to pursue others, even when they don’t pursue you back. Fully listening to someone in an argument without running through a list of things you want to spit back at them as soon as they take a long enough pause. Doing something that you don’t like doing because you know it is what the person next to you needs. Praying for and loving your worst enemy.
Loving like Jesus. Not always easy. Not always straightforward. Not always emotionally satisfying.
So is it worth it?
