For you who are willing to listen

5 Reasons You Should Always Love Your Enemies
#1: It saves you money on all the mean text messages you
would have wasted on them.
#2: If they randomly die from an unknown cause you won’t be considered a suspect.
#3: Since you’re married to them you might as well make the best of it.
#4: You can go back out in public again since you were afraid of running into them before.
#5: It can turn your evil plot to dispose of them in the woods
into a fun game of capture the flag with your friends!

We are in the middle of a series at church called "Things I wish Jesus never said." Sunday we heard a sermon based on the saying Jesus said "Love your enemies." Read what he said from Luke 6 (NLT):
“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. ... Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."

Its a tall order to ask anyone to love their enemy. Jerry Seinfeld, love Neuman. George W, love Osama and Al Queda. Shelley, love that girl who made fun of you in Jr. High. Infact, don't just love them, pray for them. Do good for them. Be a blessing to them. Jesus asks something that seems impossible.

But it is not impossible. See, we cannot change other people. I cannot impose my will on anyone, no matter how hard I try. The only thing that I can do is to change myself. I have been spending so much time praying for those I love, and very little time praying for those I don't love. Seriously if you listen to Jesus here, it can change your life. It changed mine.

Many of you know how sick my mom was. She had Pulmonary Fibrosis. The only way to find out what caused it, was a biopsy. Mom weighed her options, and decided she did not want to be put under, sliced open, have a chest tube and possibly not survive a surgery. She knew that it was not going to change her treatment, but she wanted us to know why she was sick for our sakes. She wanted an autopsy. When my mom died, we told the nurse that, and I filled out the form and signed it.

Something went wrong, communication broke down. The funeral home took her body to the crematorium, and no autopsy was ever done. I was furious. This was the hospital that I worked for, and it screwed up my mom's last wishes. Okay, furious was an understatement. Really I was hurt, and hurt bad. It was the hospital's fault, they investigated and admitted their failure. What was I to do? How could I work there when they screwed up my mom's last wishes? A lawsuit would only cause more hurt to me, in many ways.

I turned to the Bible: "But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. ... Do to others as you would like them to do to you." God spoke directly to me and gave me the answer.

The sky opened up, figuratively, and I saw the light. If more people paid attention at their job, and cared, this would not have happened. So I was determined to be a blessing to the hospital. I was going to be the one who cared with her whole heart so that patients got excellent care. And I prayed, I prayed that this mistake would open up the hospital's eyes to a problem and find a cure. Every single patient is someones parent or child, someone's brother or sister. My brother or sister, a part of the family of humankind.

We really need to stop the hating, and start loving each other. I know it is not easy, but it is a choice that needs to be made in order to save humanity. I made the choice and it saved my humanity.

Realize that you cannot change your enemy, you can only change you. Love them, pray for them, be a blessing to them and watch what happens. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

“Love is the only thing that can turn an enemy into a friend.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.