Ever notice how that simple command to love others is not, in fact, simple?
Loving is a risky, vulnerable, heart-breaking, breathtaking, wild, confusing, and often misunderstood ride.
It’s worth it, of course. It’s just not simple.
Love others anyway, in all of their contradictions and complexities, accusations and anxieties, hurts and hangups.
Love is a command, for sure, but the greatest power of love is in the choice to love, because it’s the choice that reveals the value in the people we’re loving.
In fact, it’s choosing to love, to stay, to believe in, and stand with people who have made the choice difficult that actually looks like God.
On our worst days, God never looks at us, shrugs His shoulders, and mutters, “I guess I have to keep loving them.”
On the days when we are the least lovable, He still chooses to love us.
He’s the one who writes in the dirt when others want to bury us in it (John 8:1-11).
The one who calls us by name when we don’t recognize him (John 20:1-9).
The one who walks with us on isolated roads filled with doubts and confusion, who patiently explains to us the truths we’ve forgotten without shaming us because we did (Luke 24:13-35).
He’s the one who went to a cross that was designed for us, and used it to demonstrate his love for us (Romans 5:8).
When we choose to love each other on our worst days, we model the love of heaven, and we make room for that love here on earth in the lives of the ones who need it most.
