I was scrolling through Instagram tonight and I came across the quote above that a friend had shared. It got me to thinking about how much I've grown in two years, and it was a reminder of how much growing I have to do. How often, when someone hurts us, slashes us on social media in a very passive aggressive way, steps behind our backs and says an untruth about us, doesn't give us a chance, etc... do we immediately think, "what can I do to get back at them?"
I know I lived my life that way for a while. Dealing out pain to others for pain caused. It's not a time I'm proud of, quite the opposite actually, I felt like if I could hurt someone BACK, the pain I felt would disappear. Funny thing is quite the opposite happened. When I would make an attempt to spit venom back in the face of someone who had spit it at me---I felt like crap. I had stooped to their level and allowed them to get a rise out of me. Their negativity, their lack of positive action, whatever the hurt may have been...brought out the negative in ME! I was no better than them in those moments.
As time has passed the scenarios of pain have not gone away, life continues to toss stones in one way or another and I'm challenged to gauge my response and patiently seek wisdom as to how I respond to pain. I get it wrong a lot more than I get it right...just ask J...but I know I'm making progress. It makes me sad to
see that some people haven't grown at all, some people remain stuck in the same negative rut, continuously spitting venom---the maturity tho is this--their lack of progress no longer saddens me or drives me to negativity. Quite the opposite. It makes me smile. And it makes me think about where they are coming from. Something inside THEM drives this negative attitude not something ABOUT ME.
We all bring different life experiences to the table. We all respond to life from the viewpoint of our own lense, filtered by whatever life has tossed our way. I'm now more prone to wonder what is really going on when someone is slashing my tires...bc way more often than not it's an internal battle they are fighting (realized or not) and nothing at all to do with me.
When Jesus challenges us to love our neighbor as ourselves, He put a rather difficult task before us. We love ourselves don't we? It's hard to live in this world and not have a me, me, me mindset. But Christ has called us to love others, even our enemies, as much as we love ourselves.
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘ Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40 NET)
So not only does he challenge us with this, He sets it apart as one of the two greatest commandments. And when He challenged us with this do you think He thought it would be easy? No! We battle pride, the fall has thrown so much self recognition problems into our worlds and we battle the mememe! He knew this would be a struggle but He commanded it anyway from His believers.
We are broken people in a broken world. Venom is going to be spit...the task before us is to look different, to be in the world and not of it, and to respond with love rather than hate. We'd all be better people if we could wrap our brains around that. Thankful that in two years I've closed chapters and grown as a woman...praying others can realize there's more to life than negativity and do the same. :)
Love works.
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