People Need Loving The Most When They Deserve It The Least

Interesting title eh? People need loving the most when they deserve it the least. What a saying I must say. That either strikes disgust in you, fear, a sense of shame that you don’t do it, or perhaps a realization that we just simply need to do it more.

What does loving a person who doesn’t deserve it mean? Maybe it means loving a murderer who killed a close one of yours (that’s not to say you won’t be angry or have anger towards that person and perhaps want justice). Could it mean loving your significant other who has hurt you or maybe has cheated on you? Or your mother and you had a fight this morning over something and that has really pissed you off that you just start verbally attacking her and feel very unloved. What about a person completely unrelated to you whom you find out has molested a child and has gone to jail? I’m sure we can think of many other instances of when this happens.

Our reactions to these are a case of anger, which turns into resentment, which then switches to us attacking the person in such a way it is a bring him/her to a level of inhumane interaction. I feel that we react this way simply because we are made to react that way. It comes natural to us. If some guy wanted to come and try to fool around with my wife, you can bet I would have a few words to say to him and maybe land a couple punches in his gut. That’s me, and natural but is it right?

This is something that maybe we need to think about and there is no way I think I can try to convince you in some article I’m writing. However, this is the way I see it. Everyone is inherently bad and has the proclivity to fall and mess up. Everyone who has lived, is living, and will continue to live. Will the person we love hurt us? Quite possibly. When that said person hurts us, what does he/she feel (pardoning some psychological imbalance)? I believe he/she feels a sense of guilt and shame so bad that it makes live unbearable. Lewis B. Smedes, a renowned Christian author once said: To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. It comes down to forgiveness first. When we forgive the offender, not only are we giving that person hope but we are setting ourselves free from bitterness and pain. Something to ponder about I’m sure.

Just imagine this situation. A person hurts you. You’re feeling like you can’t live another minute without busting out into anger and taking that person apart. However, you choose not to and instead forgive and love. That person is shocked. You are shocked. Love has triumphed. Not anger. How would you feel? I think I would feel a sense of liberty there. You see, I am a believer in Jesus Christ and I am not afraid to admit it. If Jesus could love me, an offender of quite a lot of things in life, why shouldn’t I love other people who hurt me? Yes, definitely easier said than done but something that He has ingrained into me and my life. So to love someone who doesn’t deserve is like me being loved by someone whom I hurt and yet not deserving it. GRACE! MERCY! Oh, how lovely that is.

Please share your thoughts on this. I’d love to know what you think about this.