We can’t stop loving those around us

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:20-21)

I am a Christian man. It is one of the things that defines my life in this world and the next. Not everyone agrees with my conclusions about life and God and my relationships with my creator and the people with whom God has surrounded me. But that is not a new thing, and I’ve made peace with the fact that there are those in the world who disagree with me on a fundamental level. This no longer affects my sleep, and yet, with everything in the news I find sleep difficult these days. I am not alone.

As I write this article, it’s the end of the first full day of my denomination’s Iowa Annual Conference. Today we learned of the attacks in Minnesota. It’s been a crazy couple of years. Disaffiliations. The national elections. All the chaos that has been happening since, and now this. It seems like everyone has strong opinions about a whole host of issues. From my perspective, many of these issues feel like things that we had already settled years ago. There’s a little voice in my head that keeps asking, “Why are we still talking about this?”

Talking? I meant arguing. I can’t think of a single issue that’s plaguing our country right now that doesn’t seem to have a razor sharp dividing line separating “them” from “us.” And to make matters even more confusing, both sides of these lines have people who claim that they, too, are Christians.

I want to believe them all. I also believe that if we can stop judging one another according to our own assumptions and opinions and let Jesus deal with what is, after all, Jesus’ business not ours, that we can return to navigating our differences with a compass of love instead of the hurtful rhetoric that the Apostle Paul has said comes from “senseless controversies … and quarrels about the law” which are ultimately “unprofitable and worthless.” (2 Tim 2:23, and Titus 3:9)

There are people in my life that I have known for years, and love. They sometimes say things that make me mad, but they can’t make me stop loving them. I can’t judge them; that’s Jesus' business. But I’m not about to stop loving them just because they make me mad. Loving God, and those with whom God has surrounded us is our business. We don’t get to take breaks.

See you on the road,

Pastor Al