Carol J German

I think we can all agree that loving others is like riding bumper cars. We desire a smooth ride but often times we bump into each other. Take marriage, for example, while every couple desires harmony, harmony simply doesn’t just happen. It takes commitment, grace, and a whole lot of patience to love your spouse like Christ loves you. Parenting, it will take every fiber of your being to keep showing up to raise those soon-to-be adults that will benefit society.

Loving others isn’t easy. In fact, it can drive you crazy! Jamie Dunlop wrote a book titled, “Love The Ones Who Drive You Crazy”. Jamie writes about how to love other believers, how to pursue unity in your church. On page 44 and 45, he gives the recipe to changing your relational challenges into having the ability to love like Jesus did.

“Brother or sister, if you are to love the ‘unlovables’, you must begin to grasp how unlovable you were when Christ chose to put His love on you, and how unlovable you remain today even as you are secure in His love.” Let’s stop here. Read that again. While you are walking with Jesus, you do not return His kind of love back. Sin keeps tripping you up. Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Yet, His love is perfect and He cannot stop loving you no matter how far you fall short of His standard, and you are called to love others in the same way.

In my 36 years of marriage to Rob, God reminds me of this reality. While I can become frustrated with Rob due to us bumping into each other, I have come to understand that Rob frustrating me is less than what I do to frustrate him. This helps me to have patience and understanding with him. When you realize the log in your own eye rather than the speck in another (read Matthew 7:3-5), you become more lovable.

Jamie continues on, “To whatever extent you minimize your sin, or offer excuses for it, or decide to not think about it, you undermine the power of God in your life. On the other hand, when you DO grasp the astounding truth of God’s mercy, it will change everything. In particular, it will change your ability to love.” The bumping between two people isn’t felt so deeply. Grace enters in and God can step in and help both hearts to respond accordingly.

May I add something to this? Those around you that you are bumping into, they are there for a purpose. God places them around you so you can learn how to love correctly. God will give an introverted child to extroverted parents. He will place a mother-in-law with a daughter-in-law together. You may have had a father who didn’t show love well, and God says to love them back. God may ask you to continue initiating invites to do something with another who never thinks to invite you. Whatever the circumstance, know that God is working behind the scenes to bring about holiness within them and/or you.

Remember, God uses others in your preparation for your eternal home one day. God uses the good, the bad, and the ugly on this side of heaven for you to become His righteous and redeemed child of the One True King!

The question that needs to be asked is this, “Are you open to what God is asking of you? Are you willing?” Look at the interaction between Peter and Jesus in Luke 18:28-30, “Peter said, ‘We’ve left our homes to follow you.’ ‘Yes,’ Jesus replied, ‘I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.'” Peter also says in 2 Peter 1:10-11, “So dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things (read 2 Peter 1:3-9), and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Since God loves the world, see John 3:16, we are all called to love those around us the same way. While it is isn’t easy, it is possible with the Almighty, Living God leading the way! Jesus’ undying love is the bumper that will keep our cars from clashing into one another. Peace and harmony are possible when Jesus is placed in the driver’s seat. Let’s be about loving others well.