Love your Enemies

What is an enemy?  Merriam-Webster defines it as "one that is antagonistic to another, especially one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent."  It comes from the Latin word "amicus" (friend) with the prefix "in" (not).  So it means "not friendly."  We generally think of an enemy as someone we are at war against.  Someone on the other side.  These people we can fight against.  An enemy is generally perceived as monstrous, or in some way inhuman.  You can't fight against someone while also seeing them as a fellow human being.  In order to fight, you have to believe that you are justified in hurting them.  That your position is more important than theirs.  That your life is more important than theirs.  You cannot fight in love.  You cannot attack someone in love.  An attack is always a sign of antagonism and can only come from a desire to injure the other person.  Love requires that you wish to protect the person from harm, not to inflict it.  To save them from pain and sorrow, not cause it.  Sometimes this comes at a price to yourself, but love allows you to take the pain and sorrow onto yourself rather than inflicting it on another. 

As Christians, we are taught to love God.  That is pretty easy.  We are taught to love our neighbors.  We learned from Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street that neighbors are nice people.  That's pretty easy also.  But Jesus very clearly told us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).  

So enemies are not nice people.  Not friends.  Not God.  Not worried about our well-being.  People who act as though we are monsters.  People that we see as monsters because of the way they treat us.  People who put themselves above us, and their welfare above ours, and even put their wants before our needs.  Just like we understand the word "neighbor" to mean anyone in the world, as Jesus explained through the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), we can have "enemies" who are part of our own household.  Enmity is a state of mind, not a designation of place.  

So what do we do when our enemies are those in our own house?  What if those who should be protecting us are actually the attackers?  

I suppose that most of us have bad days.  Most of us have times when we feel less than generous.  When we are tired or sick or mentally exhausted.  During those times it is hard to act loving even though we know that we should.  During those times, we need others to be loving to us.  But as parents, we cannot let those days govern our behavior to our children.  As spouses, we cannot let those days govern our behavior to our husband or wife.   As Christians, we have to act in love at all times.  

Our family members are not our enemies.  We are bound together in human love.  As Christians, the family bond should be even stronger, because we are also bound in Godly love.  If we are behaving as if our "loved ones" are the enemy, we cannot be following Christ.  They are apparently not loved by us.  We need to ask ourselves what our relationship actually is.  

Jesus told us to love our enemies.  Not to make enemies of our loved ones.  We are held to a higher standard.  We are to give and not take.  To heal and not hurt.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reads:

 Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude.

Love isn’t selfish or quick tempered.

It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs that others do.

 Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil.

Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting.

 Love never fails!

Until we can love like this, we will have trouble in our lives.  We will have broken families.  We will perpetuate the brokenness from generation to generation.  We need to walk in victory in our Lord, Jesus Christ, and break the generational curses and sins that allow us to wallow in selfishness and depression and cause us to harm our family members.  This is especially true for parents, who are responsible for the physical, mental, and spiritual safety of their children.

If you have enmity in your life, look at the source.  It is not from God.  1 John 3:7-10 explains where this comes from:  "Children, don’t be fooled. Anyone who does right is good, just like Christ himself.  Anyone who keeps on sinning belongs to the devil. He has sinned from the beginning, but the Son of God came to destroy all that he has done.  God’s children cannot keep on being sinful. His life-giving power lives in them and makes them his children, so that they cannot keep on sinning.  You can tell God’s children from the devil’s children, because those who belong to the devil refuse to do right or to love each other." 

Do you see how important this is?  1 John 4:19-21 reads:  "We love because God loved us first.  But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see?  The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” 

We have to have love for others.  Some people are hard to love.  We can only truly love because of the love God has given us.  In our humanity, we will always choose our own happiness and comfort over that of anyone else.  But we are not called to live for ourselves.  "Put yourself first" is the Devil's instruction, not God's.  It is the sure path to death and misery.  We have to do better.  This world we live in is under the "me" curse.  Everyone is out for himself.  We can't live like this.  We have to wake up and allow Jesus to lead us into the truth.

Homeschooling in the Homestretch: or: Don't Worry

 

 

 

Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.

Matthew 6:34 (CEV)

 

 Next week starts the final school year of Rory's homeschooling life.  He is officially a senior.  Yesterday, he went to take the ASVAB test to begin his pre-enlistment process into the Army.  I'm getting a little sentimental here, as I think of the little kindergartener that we pulled out of school so many years ago.  I was so scared I was doing the wrong thing.  I didn't know what he was supposed to learn, or how to teach it to him.  I pushed too hard sometimes, and not hard enough others.  He learned things that other kids in his grade didn't know, and didn't learn things that they did.  His sister came along and learned everything at a completely different time and in a completely different manner.  We fought, we cried, we hugged, and we laughed.  And the whole time I secretly worried that I was doing it all wrong.  I worried that when all was said and done, he wouldn't be prepared for the next step.  I worried that he wouldn't know what he needed to know after high school.  I worried a lot.

 

Yesterday I brought my "little boy" to a recruitment center to drive for an hour and a half each way with three people he didn't know to take a three-hour-long test.  My sheltered, homeschooled 17 year old went off in a huge Ram truck with instructions to call me when he was on the way home so that I could pick him back up.  He was left off at the door of the MEPS building by the recruiter who couldn't go in with him because of Covid-19 regulations, with instructions to call him when he was done for a ride back to the recruitment center. 

So all day I worried.  I worried that he'd get lost.  Or in an accident.  That he wouldn't know anything on the test.  That he would freeze up or take too long or fail.  That I hadn't done what I should to prepare him for this.

He came back.  He got his scores.  His scores were high enough in all categories that he can basically pick any job in the army that he would want.  He told me that one section would have been impossible if he hadn't taken the robotics course last year.  One section he knew almost everything because he had spent so much time watching car videos (not part of my curriculum!).  He wasn't sure about human biology (which he never took), but scored very high on the science test anyway.  

So what was the use of all of my worries?  I had no idea as I was planning curriculum each year that he would want to enlist in the Army.  He didn't either.  Even if I had known, I wouldn't have had the least idea what to do about it.  But God knew.  He made sure that Rory had the information and the skills that he would need to do what he was meant to do.

We aren't completely done yet.  There is still a physical to get through, and a year of waiting.  But I'm starting to worry a little less.  If God means for Rory to do this, then He will make it happen.  We just need to trust him, and go forward with the process.  And if He doesn't mean for Rory to do this, then all of this preparation is a way to get him where he truly needs to be.

So, to all of you homeschooling parents out there, I want you to know that you're not ruining your kids.  God knows so much better than you, because He can see the end from the beginning.  We just need to trust him day by day. 

Every Pizza Must Have a Porpoise

When I was in college, I had a class called "The History and Philosophy of Education."  It was a night class, and I can't remember much that was taught, but I do remember "Every pizza must have a porpoise." 

I would imagine you're confused, but you have to know that:

1. My teacher had a pretty strong accent  - and -
2. My roommate was also in this class.

Because this was a night class, it was very long and we were given a short break in the middle of class.  During one of these breaks, I went to talk to my roommate and noticed a picture similar to the one at the top of this post in her class notebook. 

It took me a while, but I eventually realized that the professor had been teaching us that "Every teacher must have a purpose!"

I've been thinking about this, because I'm realizing that every church must also have a porpoise purpose.  It is not enough to just be there.  It is not enough to show up because we're supposed to, or we've always done it.  It's also not enough to keep doing things just because they've always been done that way.  Always been done doesn't work anymore.  We don't live in that kind of society.  We have become much less traditional and more progressive over the years, and maybe that's not a bad thing. 

The good part about this is that people are no longer walking through their religion asleep.  They aren't just going through the motions.

The bad part about this is that many people have given up religion entirely as something archaic and irrelevant.

The church has been trying for years to be "relevant."  We've relaxed rules and modified our music so that we can better relate to the society around us.  But is that what people are really looking for?  I'm a musician.  I like to think I'm pretty good at it, but I know I can't match popular music, even with the best worship team out there.  There is no way that the church can compete with YouTube.

We have been trying to get "butts in the seats."  But is this a good purpose?  We have the idea that if only people would come and hear the message, they would become Christians.  But what if that's not true?  What if people can sit in church for years and still miss it completely?  What if our methods have done more harm to the gospel, than good?

First Peter 4  is a great chapter that gives us an idea of our purpose as God's people.  I can't print it all here, because it is too long, but I encourage you to follow the link and read it for yourselves.  Here is my summary: 

Christ suffered to overcome sin.  As followers of Christ, we are not to live for our own pleasures, but can expect to suffer for following Him.  We are to love others, be hospitable to them, and use what we have been given to serve others.  We are to speak as God would speak, and serve in His strength, so that God will be glorified in all we do and say. 

Telling people about Jesus is not enough.  Jesus asked his disciples to follow him.  He meant this in a physical way, not just "in the spirit."  He left instructions to his first disciples to go and make more disciples!  That is, followers, not believers.  James gives a good rationale for the idea that we actually have to do something as followers of Jesus.  Saying we believe is not enough:

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”  You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2:14-20)

We have cheapened Jesus.  We have made him into a good luck charm, or a "Get out of Hell Free" card.  Christianity is not free.  It is a calling.  And in this world, it is a calling to work, and to suffer.  Jesus said:  "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." (Matthew 7:21).  

The purpose of the church is not to "save" people for the afterlife. That is up to God.  Our purpose is to use the power that God has so richly bestowed on us to make this world a better place for the people in it.  God made this world, and made people to be a part of it.  This is not some sort of testing ground for our "real" destiny.  It is what we were made for.  If God had wanted more souls for Heaven only, he could have created more angels!  He wanted a world that would show his glory.  And he gave human beings the job of manifesting that glory on his earth.  Instead, we have preached an escapist view that once we get off this cursed planet, our true life will begin.  And all you have to do to have eternal bliss is to say you believe in Jesus.

We are living in mortal bodies.  This means they will one day die.  But humans were not originally made that way.  Mortality came because the original people decided to live for themselves, rather than for the glory of God.  They lost their purpose.  Jesus came to show us that we can overcome that original sin, or missing of the path that God set for us.  He came to lead us into our true, God-given purpose.  And when we once again turn back to God and fulfill the purpose He has for us, as Jesus did, we will be granted eternal life in Paradise, as God intended for all of us.

Our hope is not in saying a few words, but in the Word of God who became flesh to show us how to live as true sons and daughters of the Living God (John 1).  

The church is supposed to be Jesus' body.  As a body, we are to do physical work.  Let's get going!