Love that conquers the world

I read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan recently. The thoughts I express in this post are heavily inspired by his thoughts expressed in the book and I share them with you.


Frederick Buechner writes in The Magnificent Defeat,


"The love for equals is a human thing - of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing - the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart oft he world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing - to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy - love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain.The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world."


Wow! After I read this I just sat in my chair in thought for a long time. So, I strive for the first three of these everyday. To love the lovely, to love the unlovely and to love the more fortunate. I have written about these in my earlier posts. But the last evasive one - Love for the enemy. Ah...it is so beyond me. 
If I am honest, I know I cannot love one who inflicts pain on me, or worse, pain on my child. 
Is that even possible? I surely know where my humanly limit is. Or do I?


Jesus teaches us in Luke 6 v 32-36, of such love:
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your neighbors, do good to them and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”'

Why would God expect of me what I cannot humanly do? The more I think of it the more I know I cannot do it, unless that is, I am completely dependent on Him to be the sole source of this love.

As I feel God is revealing this to me, let me share it with you:
It is about choosing to act differently than how you may be feeling inside. When you have been wronged, hurt, disrespected, it is but human to be filled with feeling of hate, unforgiveness and retaliation. At the point when these feelings are still within us, God is challenging us to act despite the feelings. When I choose to respect one who disrespected me or not retaliate to one who wronged or hurt me and forgive them, I am choosing to tap into God's source of love to do so. If I opted to love from within me, I couldn't, because it is isn't there at the moment. Ah...but that is the imperative phrase...at the moment. You can act one way and feel another way because God is not concerned with petty courtesies. He cares deeply of the intentions of your heart. When you act, do so in spite of how you feel and surrender those feelings that you are not quite sure what to do with, to Him. He is faithful to then deal with them from there. He can bring healing and restoration that no amount of retaliation, revenge or bitterness will ever bring you.
Up for the challenge?