Hard to Love

Unlovable - (adjective) incapable of inspiring love or affection

Unlikable – (adjective) difficult or impossible to like [Dictionary.com]

This is an issue that causes me grief in my heart. It makes my head spin to try with due diligence to be kind and Love other like we have been instructed to do.

You might notice that the two definitions above seem very vague and very subjective. They are, but none the less it dawned on me as I was pondering that these are two very different issues.
I get hung up sometimes on the fact that I have a genuine dislike for a person and I begin to feel a yolk pressing down on my neck that was not put there by my Savior.

Love & like are two very different animals it seem to me. You may be saying, “Well, duh!” But I know I have heard it a hundred times and have said it myself; it’s is hard to “Love” folks like God has commanded us to. I think though that we need to make up our minds that we are not talking about being the worlds buddy. We are not talking about finding a way to befriend and like every person we meet. What an impossible task and not, I think, what we are called to do.

I find myself in a situation at the moment where I am in a group of folks who thrive on stirring up strife. Their existence is so devoid of grace and peace that the can find no relief other than the entertainment they derive from making others miserable. Through this situation I am sensing His call to love these folks and to see them as He sees them, but I am coming to realize that I have gotten bogged down in the fact that I cannot “like” them. How can I love and not like?

Looking at the definitions above I can tell you that we all fit into these categories in some ways and at sometimes in our lives. God sees it differently. He sees that to “Love” is a choice that He made. He found, by choice, something to love in us. He chose the possibility over the circumstance. He gave us Grace, Peace, and Understanding and he made a way for us to become “Likeable”. You see, likability only come through relationship and that is what he gave us the opportunity to have through the cross.

It’s not the likability He wants us to see in others it’s the fact that He saw something worth choosing in any of us.

We are called to “Love”. We are called to love the way He loves; by choice freely extending Grace, Peace, and Kindness regaurdless of the circumstance………..even if it kills us.

Relationships may come or be restored by Love or not. Love might not be received by some. In fact you may be rejected altogether, but Love remains and without that Hope fades………..