Some time ago, I heard about two people consistently giving to a third person such great pain that one day he ended up praying to God, saying, “Father, these two people believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for their sins; they qualify for eternal life in heaven. Therefore, I request that You place me to hell.”
Yes, it is a silly prayer. No, it will not be fulfilled. But can you imagine the feeling behind the prayer?
Two Christians determined to treat you with disgrace, belittling, falsely accusing, and insulting to humiliate you at every occasion, so that you can be nothing and these people see themselves as victorious conquerors. You follow Jesus and you are determined not to respond evil by evil, instead you choose to love and bless them even when they hurt you but they think you are weak!
People imitate the god they believe, they become like the god of their imagination. But Jesus did not say, “You know the Father, He is in your imagination.” Instead, He said, “Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father.” And Jesus was crucified. When He was crucified, hanging helpless-looking on the cross, those who had Him crucified were mocking Him in victory. Right from the cross, Jesus responded by love, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” Wasn’t that powerful?
Some people are not comfortable expressing love; they avoid saying, “darling” or “honey” to their loved ones, but they may not be timid in expressing disapproval, sneering, laughing at them, belittling, disrespecting. Culture is highly rooted in Stoic philosophy which promotes stiff upper lip to undermine deep emotional expressions of love, compassion and sadness. If you cry, you can be mocked, “Are you a crybaby?” But violence and anger are not treated as weakness and stiff upper lip does not operate against such destructive and harmful feelings. Why do people feel insecure and shy away from expressing love while feeling that expressing their anger is understandable? Foolish, irrational reasoning, is it not? When majority lives this way, then the wrong becomes right.
I invite you to rebel against this irrational reasoning. Put God in control of your life by submitting to Him. By using the power of the Holy Spirit, commit yourself to a life of love. First you love God and yourself. Then you love those who appreciate your love in ways they may receive. You love them by building them up. You can love just by smiling and talking constructive, positive words to them and about them with others, and by listening. Sometimes, you love by leaving them alone, leaving them the right to choose when to contact with you.
God is Love. In the beginning we were made in His image of Love. Loving God, ourselves and loving one another is in our being. Think creatively how you will express your love to one another, how you will call to life “love” in your friends’ heart. Immerse them with your love. You will be empowering them, spreading happiness.
You may say, “I don’t have enough love within me.” Ask Jesus to give you the Holy Spirit. Now, you have Love dwelling within you. All you need to confess is “God Almighty, my Daddy, I cannot love. Please, You love people through Your Spirit in me and in spite of me,” then watch Him answering your prayer.
The trick is do not wait until you develop “love feeling” in your heart for all people. Loving some will be the easiest thing on Earth but this is not true for all. You must decide to love them, and, following your prayer, just attempt to say and do something positive to them and then do things like that again and again and let the love relationship continue in that direction. God will enable your love to bloom, gradually.
Let God use you to bring heaven into the hearts of people.
If we want to be in control, let us get a hold of our destructive emotions. Let us stop bitterness and grudge getting the upper hand in our hearts. Let us stop taking pride in crushing other people’s egos through physical or psychological abuse and violence. Let us watch our tongue; if what we will say is not going to build them up, let’s not say it. When you think they make a mistake, do not laugh at them, belittle or disrespect them; get a control of your emotions, be in control.
Begin sharing your appreciation with people. Bring smile to their hearts. There is something to appreciate in everyone. Go ahead, bring that to surface, say them you appreciate them, let them glow with smile; some of them at least will in time return with love back to you. The Holy Spirit in you will empower you to express love to one another. God will become real in your life, much more than ever, much deeper than you can imagine. You belong to God. Watch happiness flowing from your own heart to others and vice versa.
Murat Kuntel is the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
