Part 1: "Love"

When I really think about this word "love", I think about how many times I have failed to live up to the meaning of it. All throughout the book of Matthew, Jesus asks us to love. You hear Him say, "Love your neighbor as yourself"..."Love your enemy." Last night was a perfect example of me NOT doing this. In fact, if the opposite of love is hate, then I guess you could say that I succeeded greatly at hating someone. I guess what makes the situation even more bothersome is that the guy was even a follower of Christ, a brother. He and I did not see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and I left pretty angry with this man. But as much as I try to not want to love him, God not only calls me to love him, but to be unified with him. In John 17, Jesus is praying for His disciples to "Be one as We are One." (referring to the Trinity) When I look at it in this light, I see how foolish I was last night in acting the way I did. Not only did I not love my brother, but I was not in unity with him. I think this breaks God's heart. Maybe instead of arguing and bickering over pointless things with our brothers (and enemies for that matter), let us first remember that this completely goes against everything we're called to do as followers of Christ. We're called not just to "deal with" that person, but to love them , regardless of the situation. Be love.