Love your enemies

Good Morning,

Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

This morning I received the following account of this verse being but into action, into someone's life in a practical way. A great example.

Kari has been in her sales position for almost nine years. A few years ago, things became particularly trying. Like many other industries at the time, the hotel industry was suffering from the poor economy and sales had decreased. This had resulted in increased pressure for Kari to produce acceptable levels of revenue. In addition to this, she had the challenge of working for a department director with a quick temper and controlling personality. He would make decisions irrationally and pass unfair judgment.
"It wasn't long before I was positively irate with him every day for weeks at a time," Kari said. "He, on the other hand, carried on in a 'business as usual' manner, quite oblivious to my state of mind. The situation began to affect my personal life.
Finally, after much prayer and reflection on the matter, something dawned on me. I realized that my anger toward him wasn't doing any good and wouldn't change a thing. A Bible verse came to mind: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
Imagine that! I was going to have to think of and treat the director exactly the opposite of my feelings toward him. It was a very difficult thing to do but I gathered the courage to begin praying for him. It was amazing what peace came into my heart and how the anger slowly dissipated. A few months later, I was able to chat with him in a civil manner. He even seemed to have 'improved'."
By turning to the one who has overcome the world, Kari found the courage to face her 'enemy' and found peace in her heart.

One point of this story struck me pointedly. That was the fact the this lady's anger and frustration affected nobody but herself. You see, we can be angry and have extreme dislike...even hate...for someone and all of that negative emotion doesn't affect the person that it's aimed at. (Well, only if it's acted out in some inappropriate way, but that's a different message.)

Jesus knew how to disarm one's enemies and to take the feelings we have of dislike or even hate and turn them into something positive and even uplifting. When we take our anger and do all we can to turn it to love, it removes a door that the enemy can use to cause us to move away from the Lord. If we love instead of hate it often takes the wind out of the sails of those we've hated and might even turn their behavior around. As is pointed out in this account, Kari noticed that her boss's behavior "seemed to have improved" in some way. Now, that could be literally true, of course. It could also be that the attitude of love caused a different perspective. No matter which it might be, it is much for the better of the one who is showing love.

So, I thought that this example might be of help to some of us who could be having a difficult time with another person, either on a personal basis or in the work place.

It is something that we need to do in our lives, all of us, simply to love and to do all possible to remove the negative, hating emotions from our lives.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David