Embracing 'The Hard'

“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”  Luke 6:35-36

The other day, I was struggling with a situation between colleagues.  We agreed to disagree on a topic, and my frustration grew because this had created friction between us.  Speaking with my wife about it, she told me to say a prayer and God would guide me through it.  My passion was such that I did not want to heed those words, but my mind knew it was the right thing to do.  As I did so, my anger subsided and I began to sort through a better path toward resolving the rift between my colleague and me.  Soon, my heart kicked in, and I began to feel God’s grace for me and in turn mine for my colleague.  This reminded me that spiritual growth always occurs when pushed to do what does not come natural or easy.

God asks us to trust both Him and His teaching above what we would want to do.  The story of Jesus asking us to love our enemies has to be one of the most difficult concepts to embrace.  There can be nothing more difficult than for one to be forgiving of another who had done them wrong.  That’s the beauty of these verses because when faced with such a situation, Jesus asks us to remember our very own circumstances.  We once were the unthankful and wicked rebelling at times against God, and yet, our Heavenly Father was compassionate to us in spite of our being undeserving of it.  Jesus still went on the cross for our sins.  Therefore if we have a true understanding of this compassion, we are able to show love for those who would not ordinarily deserve love.  We able to ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘do unto others as you would have do unto you.’ (see Luke 6:29-31) 

Our journey of faith was never meant to be easy.  One of my favorite quotes about difficulties comes from the movie ‘A League of Their Own.’  In one of the final scenes, Tom Hanks, who played a washed up baseball player that becomes an inspirational manager, answers one of his players when asked about the difficulty of playing baseball saying:

It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it.  The hard is what makes it great.

Jesus says something very similar to this saying, “But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:14).  Let us embrace those hard lessons for what we gain in the end is worth our temporary feeling of self-righteousness.  Where can you be more merciful toward those you disagree with?  How can you show God’s love for one you would prefer to be distant from?  My prayer is that when challenged to do something by God, we remember the saying, “The hard is what makes it great.”  Amen.