A concise guide to treating each other well

I’ve often told you all that I always seem to write a GPS blog post on the day my heart most needed the passage. Today is no different.

Here at Resurrection, we speak about loving our neighbor every single week. The greatest commandment Jesus gave us is to love our neighbor as ourselves. We know well in our brains that we are called to love, but when it comes to our hearts and our actions? It gets a lot harder because let’s face it, people can be frustrating and annoying, and they never seem to do exactly what we want them to do! But was it ever really about us and what we want and the ways we think the world should work?

Unfortunately, no.

I’ll tell you a story about something I’ve been struggling with lately. I tend to be (overly) smiley, I really like to work hard and be as helpful as possible, and sometimes I can be extreme when it comes to the things I’m passionate about and love. With this personality, I am always trying to do all the things. I have a neighbor who does not love my tendency to want to help. When I try to say hi, smile, wave, or make an offer of help, it is usually returned with a look of “please get as far away from me as possible.” They’ve spoken to me in unkind ways, and they’ve spoken about me to others. For a long time, I would get angry. I couldn’t understand why this person seemed to dislike me so much when all I wanted to do was be their friend and help them when they need it, be a good neighbor. I found myself getting more and more consumed by anger about this one person and I never even asked myself, or them, what might be behind the behaviors.

I tell you this story for three reasons: first, when we hold anger in about someone without addressing it, likely the only person hurting is us. Second, we often create stories about others and why we shouldn’t love them that are simply untrue. Third, if you desire to love others the way you want to instead of the way God calls us to, it probably doesn’t quite work.

My neighbor only wants to be loved through words of affirmation and kindness. She doesn’t need me to do anything for her or help her in places where she just simply doesn’t need it. I learned this by talking to her, and then I also learned a lot more about what’s going on in her life (and it’s a lot). Her attitude is more about what she is dealing with than anything about me.

We can never know what’s going on in each person’s life that we encounter. We can’t control those around us, even when we think it’s just us trying to be helpful. All we need to do is lead with love and compassion and God will do the rest. What have you been holding onto that you can let go of today? Who can you simply just love today, even if it’s hard or you don’t understand them? How much more beautiful might our life look if we filled it with more love? I’m excited to see what might happen here, with all of us!