Love HarderÖrnek

Have You Tried Love Yet? As a child in my community, athleticism was often measured by how fast you were. If we were out at the park, we had races to see who was the fastest that day. If we were on our block, we raced either on our bicycles or on foot to see who would come in first. At church, at birthday parties, at school, somehow, we always ended up in races to test how much our speed had grown. And if you lost, there was always the encouragement to “run faster.” I remember getting my first summer job with a construction company during high school. If the work wasn’t done quickly enough, we were told to “work harder.” If we can’t reach something, someone tells us to “climb higher.” When we reach the end of our rope, we are told to have “more patience.” Motivation and inspiration are great tools. We are encouraged to go a bit further when we feel like we have reached our limits. But, when someone drives us nuts, disappoints us, hurts our feelings, makes us angry, or takes advantage of us, how do we respond? Well, based on what I’ve seen online, the response is blocked, canceled, called out, blasted, and exposed. And, yes, there IS a time to call out wrongdoing. Jesus clearly called out Pharisees and others when they were doing wrong. But, there is also a response used by Jesus which we don’t use often enough. And it’s this...when someone challenges your love, is your response to LOVE HARDER? Over the next few days, we’ll explore what it means to love someone HARDER than they love you.