got LOVE? … (02/21/12)
“Who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common decency to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?” ~ Mark Twain
Funny, I don’t remember Jesus making any exceptions to his commandment to “Love your enemies”. In fact, Jesus went out of his way to show over & over & over again that LOVE HAS NO EXCEPTIONS — none whatsoever (Matt 5:48, for all you Christians, all you Ameri…cans, and all other lovers of the Bible).
Interesting, then, all this talk from conservative Christians (an oxymoron, by the way) about battling “The Enemy” (Satan) and engaging in “spiritual warfare” … Evil is steeped in maliciousness, which comes from hatred, which comes from anger — which is nothing more than crystallized fear & insecurity. As such, rejecting evil — or punishing evil or hating evil or combating evil — actually makes evil stronger!
That is why Jesus was so keen on us Loving our enemies; on us having the courage to forgive our trespassers and be Kind when least inclined. That is why the Masters and mystics of all the world’s religions have offered the very same wisdom — they have done so BECAUSE IT WORKS (1 John 4:18, for all you Christians, all you Americans, and all other lovers of the Bible).
When we have the gumption to set aside our primitive, self-centered desires to further “healthy boundaries” and “self love” … when we have the humility and the courage to cease trying to “rehabilitate” evil-doers … when we have the courage to simply extend to our enemies the Kindness that is so obviously lacking in their lives — and when we choose to persist in doing so, then a Wonder-full thing happens: evil must either wake up to Love, or flee and leave us in Peace to Love another.
It’s spiritual physics, people! Love and fear do not mix — they cannot coexist at all for any significant period of time.
Love given persistently either chases fear away or morphs it back into Kindness — period. This is a psychological law — a law as real and immutable as the law gravity.
So the question now becomes not whether or not Love will work for you when you extend it to your enemies, but rather whether or not you will have the courage to do so — today.
So ……. got Love?
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