Loving the Unlovely - Test or Torture?

This Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy speaking to Linus, "I am human and I need to be loved just like everybody else does." God bless Lucy. She reminds me of some folks, even my own self, at times. If you'll remember dear Lucy's personality -- she was characterized as loud-mouthed, aggressive, temperamental, and sometimes dumb. She often mocked Snoopy and his owner, Charlie Brown, and even her younger brother Linus. She was quite antagonistic, often playing the villain role in a number of stories. She was also characterized as vain, as she believes she is beautiful and thinks she is perfect (though she once admitted complaining is the only thing she can do well). But, in response to Lucy in this photo, I reply with, "Yes, Lucy, you're right. We all need to love and be loved."

The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 13, ”"Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." I've been mulling over this post as I've subtlely posted about loving the unlovely -- not that it's an easy thing to do, but because it's the right thing to do. I can't speak to those who just don't care or those who are bent on being name callers and making really snide and ugly remarks about others, but I am referring to my brothers and sisters in Christ who have found it a popular thing to do -- to speak some very unkind words. It's one thing to disagree, but it's a whole other thing, to justify cold-heartedness. It's a shame that our love can be reduced to sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. This post today isn't to those on the other side of love -- it's for those of us on God's side -- those of us who are supposed to take the higher road, the road less traveled, Have we heard 1 Corinthians 13 so often that we no longer think about what those words mean?

I get it. We are disappointed in the political shenanigans that are going on. It's easy to get caught up in the sheer craziness of it all. One side points to the other about violence, outrage, bomb threats, mass killings, misconduct of each other, etc. But as off-the-wall crazy as it all is.....we must remind ourselves as many times as necessary to go back to WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). He's our "rule of measure". He was despised and rejected and even though He was a perfect and innocent man, was tortured and killed. He only loved. He taught us how to love. He loved even the unloveliest and even died to save them. He forgave "Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Maybe it's time that, rather than focusing on the weaknesses of each other, to give ourselves the LOVE TEST and see if we'll pass with flying colors. Let's ask God to help us be LOVERS with these "love" qualities: After reading these words, let's read them again and replace the word "love" with our name. "Love is patient -- Donna is patient. Love is kind -- Donna is kind. Dear God, where I fall short, renew my heart and soul to be a LOVER like YOU!
1) Love is patient.
2) Love is kind.
3) Love is not jealous.
4) Love does not brag.
5) Love is not arrogant.
6) Love does not act unbecomingly.
7) Love does not seek its own.
8) Love is not provoked.
9) Love does not take into account a wrong suffered.
10) Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness.
11) Love rejoices with the truth.
12) Love bears all things.
13) Love believes all things.
14) Love hopes all things.
15) Love endures all things.
God doesn't ask us to do anything without His grace to do it. Let's be LOVERS, not haters!
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Making Love and Peace -- Not War

Last week, I saw my 4-sisters cousins' photo of them in front of the Colosseum in Rome while they were on a trek through Italy. I quickly found my photo when I was there last year because it stirred up a passion to share about the end of a barbarous era when hate and violence killed at least 400,000 gladiators (slaves, criminals, Christians) and a million animals for “sport”. The Colosseum was eventually shut down because someone refused to stay silent about the atrocities. He paid a high price for his passion and courage, but that price changed the course of history.

Telemachus, a monk, lived in a cloistered monastery in the 4th century. He sensed God saying: “Go to Rome” so he packed up his possessions in a sack and went there. As he arrived, people were crowding the streets. He asked why all the excitement and was told that this was the day the gladiators would be fighting and killing each other in the Colosseum, the day of the games. He thought to himself, “Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each other, for enjoyment?” He ran to the Colosseum and heard the gladiators saying, “Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar” and he thought, “This isn’t right.” He jumped over the railing, went into the arena, got between two gladiators, held up his hands and said: “In the name of Christ, STOP!”

The crowd protested and shouted, “Run him through. Run him through.” A gladiator hit him in the stomach with the back of his sword. It sent him sprawling in the sand. He got up and ran back and again said, “In the name of Christ, STOP.” The crowd continued to chant, “Run him through.” Another gladiator came over and plunged his sword through the monk’s stomach and he fell into the sand, which began to turn crimson with his blood. One last time he gasped out, “In the name of Christ, STOP!” A hush came over the 80,000 people in the Colosseum. Soon a man stood and left, then another and more, and within minutes all 80,000 had emptied out of the arena. It was the last known gladiatorial contest in the history of Rome.

That, is what I call heroism and St. Telemachus is who I call a hero. He gave his life to make peace. Peace often comes at a high price. Four centuries before, Jesus Christ suffered a brutal death of crucifixion on a cross – as One Who died because His destiny was to exemplify His peacemaker's heart.

Since the beginning of time, peace has been fought for and here we are in this 21st century and the brutality, anger, animosities, hatred, and violence is still happening because of the one common theme of trying to silence the voice of peace and love. It’s a real tug of war between hate and love and this world is far from peace. The accounts of unsteadiness are abundant.

Since the beginning of time, peace has been fought for and here we are in this 21st century and the brutality, anger, animosities, hatred, and violence is still happening because of trying to silence the voice of peace and love. It’s a tug of war between hate and love and this world is far from peace. We are surrounded by a war between love and hate. Like St. Telemachus, I want to reach my arms out between both sides and say: "IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, STOP!!!"

Franklin Graham said: "I have no hope in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. The only hope for this country is God." The solution that we as citizens have control over is how we respond to these conflicts. We must do our part on a daily basis to not get into word wars because the only thing that can fight hate is love. We have every right to fight for what we believe in; it's our right as citizens. But it starts with love.

Whatever message we should be conveying -- in good AND bad times -- boils down to one primary theme...LOVE. We are faced with a choice. We can let the horrible tragedies weigh on us until we are angry and in fear and we ask..."How can LOVE be the answer when there are those who are filled with so much hate, bitterness, sick minds, and spirits?" It's the same answer when they killed and crucified our Savior: "Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do." That is the love we should all desire.

On Sunday, my pastor spoke these words of St. Francis of Assisi. If we took these words, meditated on them and sincerely prayed them with all our hearts, just maybe we could be the catalyst for change:

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. Amen.

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Because of a Leadership Training in Richardson, TX on Saturday, I drove down a few days early to be with my kids in Frisco. Being in the Dallas area when the tragic shootings took place on Thursday night, hearing the heart-wrenching details of the police and civilians killed or injured, brought memories back to me when I was in my 10th grade Geometry Class at South Oak Cliff High School here in Dallas. Over the loud speaker came the inconceivable words of our Principal, "President Kennedy has been shot and killed". It seemed our world momentarily stood still. We were in shock. How could something so appalling take place in OUR city, Big "D"? Then a few years later, in 1968, the terrible atrocities of the civil rights riots made us feel that our country was falling apart. I remember Martin Luther King's words just before his assassination in 1968: "Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

The answer then and the answer for Thursday night and all other diabolical killings and injuries, is still the same, though it almost sounds lofty and unattainable: Love is the answer. In the photo here is a Dallas area man, Jimmy Lee Robinson, who gives his time to spreading good news in the form of homemade signs held up with positive and motivating words. In light of these last few days, when I saw him walking down Main Street, here in Frisco, I made a U-turn to get a photo of this day's message: "I love you". I hugged him. He's my brother. We're on the same team. We're in the same family of God. We all want and need love -- even those misguided, mentally bent individuals who take people's lives. If they had known love, perhaps their decisions would have been different.

Whatever message we should be conveying -- in good AND bad times -- boils down to one primary theme....LOVE. We are faced with a choice. We can let the horrible tragedies weigh on us until we are angry and in fear and we ask..."How can LOVE be the answer when there are those who are filled with so much hate, bitterness, sick minds and spirits?" It's the same answer when they killed and crucified our Savior...."Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do." That's love. Oh that we can give that love.

I said it last week and I say it again. "It's time for us to love and pray passionately." Yesterday, at the meeting I attended, the speaker prayed these words of St. Francis of Assisi. If we took these words, meditated on them and sincerely prayed them with all our hearts, just maybe we could be the catalyst for change:

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. Amen.