Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
Anyone in your life unloveable? Anyone fit that description?
Family? Acquaintances? Coworkers?
Children come to mind.
At times they seem unloveable when demanding things their way.
When irritated, they can spew forth ugliness, wishing you’d disappear.
Fine. I’ll go.
But that’s not biblical. Not God’s way.
He wants you to stay, loving the unloveable.
Can you even imagine a harder assignment?
Not me. Goes against my every fiber.
We usually love others because we get things in return.
Love, acceptance, respect, you get the idea.
But loving the unloveable? Yikes, that’s a whole new arena.
Yet that’s what God calls us to do. Literally. We are called to love others, no matter the response.
Jesus is our example. He loved us without reserve.
Without compromise. Without question.
And He loves us still when we revert back to our sinful selves, choosing our flesh too many times to count.
In other words, when we, ourselves, are unloveable, God still loves us.
If you’re willing, partner with God. His power through us can begin our attempt to love those who distain us.
God’s love. Not yours.
At the end of the day, God will be glorified if you love even when others don’t deserve it.
Even if they roll their eyes, talk back, or wish upon your disappearance.
Ask God to fill you with Himself each day as you wear His identity for you.
Only then, will you fulfill His greatest commission: To love your neighbor as yourself.
May we witness God through our daily human reactions. And may God Himself be manifest through our human attempts at love as we place others before ourselves.
Photos by Saad Chaudhry, Mark Boss, Elia Massignan, & Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash
Amy Linnea 
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