You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.... -- Matthew 5:43-48
Long ago, a blinding flash of the obvious gifted me with those two sentences as my inside personal goal. Admittedly, doing it has been more than difficult, and that's doing it imperfectly at best.
To me to "pray for those who persecute you" means to pray for those to whom I have assigned the role of persecutor, relatives, friends and some who are just passersby in my life. I don't have to work on not thinking of them as persecutors, that's the wrong end of the learning curve...I need to upgrade my perception of them to being angels in my life for, like fear, they turn me to God p.d.q.
Truth to tell, the biggest block to doing this has been the name of the person who first said it, namely, "Jesus." That name in itself is toxic to many in my world today. I avoid using the name and usually use "J" when I'm quoting him even in my journal!
My peeps do not use the name when talking about spiritual matters...and literally talking about things he taught. I know, and I quote a lot, that loving our enemies is the essence of nonresistance and nonresistance is love and God is love. Ah, but who first gave us the quiet word, resist not evil? J.
A short time ago, for no known-to-me reason, this "new" understanding came to me: Invite Jesus, as just plain folk, into my thinking...Jesus as a walking around good and decent person...kinda like I believe my dad, my friend Judy's dad Ed and Sandy B. were.
In short, strip him of the fancy-schmancy religious symbolism and let him be, just like I am...and you are. I've been letting that be...I chew him out on occasion, kiss him on the lips when I'm at sixes and sevens, high-five him when life's going my way. I may change his name to "Jay" until I get to where I'm going.
Best part...I know my God approves. Face it, where would I get such an idea except from my God?
Thank you.
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