SARA-LOUISE MARTIN'S WISDOM ON FORGIVENESS AND ENEMIES

(My friend Sara-Louise posted this on Facebook this morning...I blog it with her permission...)

I have known deep pain in my personal life, losing my father due to terrorism. I also know that "praying for our enemies" is when the rubber hits the road when it comes to Christianity. I have done it with gritted teeth and bitterness in my heart. THIS is what Jesus asks of us because HE KNOWS IT BRINGS FREEDOM.

It's not natural, it's counter-cultural. It's not easy, it's VERY painful. BUT...if we want to move forward into the freedom of LIVING, then we need to do it.

On The Gospel Coalition website I read...

"Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:43).

If you’ve ever wondered why many people refused to follow Jesus during his earthly ministry, you have to look no further than that verse.

In our day, we have watered down the term “enemy” so much that this command has lost much of its shock value. Today, “enemy” is used primarily in reference to people who are rude to us or treat us unkindly. We even use the portmanteau “frenemy” to refer to an associate pretending to be a friend or someone who really is a friend but also a rival."

Comments

[Robert Robinson]

I teach in a boarding school. At last Christmastime I stood with German boys singing Still the Night, along with their comrades from Ireland. A generation ago they would have been enemies. Indeed many of my own childhood games were about war with the Germans. Aside us that day were some boys - Muslims, wanting to share with their friends at the holiday time. To enjoy that feeling of peacefulness and love, despite being at a Christian Church service. How difficult it is for them within school this week. The actions of those men on Friday was not as these boys of mine have been taught. They are characterised by gentleness and treating others with respect.

Christ asks us to proactively show love, to view the 'love' as a doing, an act of will. As a school we shall seek to do that and to bind all together as a community.

What Sara-Louise so beautifully articulates is that proactivity. We need to show love in this dark time.