Jesus told us, “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” (John 13:34)
We are told so plainly and so often to love, yet we do it so poorly. Why is loving others so difficult? Why do we complicate it so? Does this go back to fear? To pride? To our constant struggle to die to self? To die to our need to get own own way? Why is our default to only want to love people who are like us, who agree with us? Are we that needy? That insecure? That unsure of our beliefs?
It's scary how much we struggle to love others. I want to remember these thoughts and questions the next time I allow myself to think harshly about others, each time I see a news headline and think, “What idiots.”
Jesus help me walk your love out of myself and into the world.
