You’d be hard pressed to find, among any of the world’s great religions, philosophies or spiritualities, instructions about living your best life that do not involve love.
How about this: Where does love fit in when it comes to that person you went to high school with, who friended you on Facebook 10 years ago, and now routinely shares stories and posts that make your blood boil? Normally you just ignore them, and well you should. But occasionally they show up in your posts, leaving comments and pasting links that directly challenge your position. It’s not that you can’t handle people disagreeing with you , it’s that they are soabout it.
Finally , how do we practice love toward entire categories or demographics of people with whom we vehemently disagree with? How does the far left embody love for the far right? How does the religious fanatic show love to that other “false” religion? How do people who have been harmed by others find a way to avoid sinking into hatred, but instead move toward the light of love — even for those who’ve hurt...
Jesus, though, had a vision for a different way. He saw the potential for a life so fully connected to God that one might actually and truly experience what he called the “Kingdom of Heaven that is within,” which was his first century Jewish apocalyptic preacher way of saying, “experiencing the full expanse of unconditional love, freely given by the Creator of all things, and endlessly available to us at all times.
I don’t know about you, but the last time I tried to love my enemy, it didn’t go well. In fact, it’s almost never gone well for me.