BFD #4

Matthew 5:47 "And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not the Gentiles do the same?"

Ok, this one has to be quick because I've got to leave for church in...twenty minutes...and I'm not even dressed.

So this verse comes from the passage about loving your neighbor (just in case we needed a little context), which means that "brothers and sisters" refers to the people you love. Your friends, people you assume to be nice based on what you know of them, people you just naturally like, etc.

I posit that, although it is important to be kind to the people with whom you naturally connect, it is even more important to put yourself out there in situations where you need to be kind to someone you absolutely cannot stand or even just someone who makes you uncomfortable.

For instance, there is this guy in my English class who is, for lack of a better word, creepy. He stared at my cleavage for one whole class (I'm now more careful about the shirts I wear to that class), and whenever I am in any sort of group with him he talks over everyone. This drives me insane, because although I am capable of letting others speak in a group, when I have something to say, I'd like to say it...finish my thought, you know? And this guy comes in here, thinking he knows something, and deep down you know he just isn't that...smart. At least not when it comes to English.

SO picture me, thinking all these things in my class, chatting it up with the people I am naturally drawn to and ignoring this other guy. BAM. One day, it occurred to me exactly how mean I was being. I mean, I wasn't being mean to his face, but I was most definitely ignoring him. So my group had to critique each other's writing assignments, and he was in my group, and we were doing his paper and he was getting all defensive. I was about ready to lash out and smack him or something...after all, we were just trying to help him make his paper better. But I didn't, and we all got through our stuff and moved on. Then, when it came time for us to do mine, he was really being mean about my paper. Now, I can deal with criticism as long as it's delivered kindly, but this guy decides that I wrote this awfully boring paper that should probably be burned or something and I was having MASSIVE amounts of difficulty not throwing my desk aside and attacking him lioness-style, claws and all. But when he was done, I shocked myself...and attempted to be a good person. I said, "Ok, well, thank you very much for your comments."

That story is very much not like me. I wouldn't have said anything to him, normally, but I think God just got inside my head for a minute and calmed me down, letting me know that He loves this awkward, rude guy just as much as he loves me.

And I think that is the point to this verse. God doesn't choose favorites. He loves the awkward pimply kid who facebook stalks the cheerleader. He loves the fire and brimstone preacher on the sidewalk, even though he twists His words. He loves the man who cheats on his wife, and the Ku Klux Klan member, and the televangelist who drives an Escalade. All the people we love to hate, God LOVES deeply. Just as deeply as he loves US. So if we want to be like God...I think we all have to work on the whole, "loving each other" thing. We humans are good at choosing favorites, but God doesn't. And I'd like to think there is a reason for that. Maybe we all just need to be loved a little more by each other, and thereby show God's love through OUR love for each other.

Disclaimer: With that story, I am not trying to say that you should follow me as an example because normally I would NOT do the right thing after having my buttons pushed to that extent. I REALLY am not trying to glorify myself and I would hate for you to think that. I was just giving an example of how hard it is to do the right thing.