I was raised on a farm in northwest Missouri. My older brother and I carry a few scars from horsing around the farm - and I don't mean riding horses! I don't know when it started, but it seems like that kid was beating me up from the day I was born.
Being two years older than me, and since I was tall and skinny, he had the upper hand most of the time. Occasionally I would win a battle, but usually I lost the battle and the war.
I remember one time we were playing in the back yard. He was being bossy and whatever game we were playing involved a broken hoe handle. As he came running towards me, I threw that hoe handle like a spear and it hit him just above his eye. He was bleeding like crazy, so I ran and hid, hoping that Mom wouldn't kill me. Eventually she found me and we all piled in the car and headed for the doctor so he could get stitches. Mom later talked about how frantic she was to find me so she could get him to the doctor. And at the time, I was just worried that I would be unable to sit for a week!
As we grew older, I grew a little wiser. I figured out a trick that delayed the pain when Mr. Brother got angry. I would start running from him and he would chase me. He was faster than me and I knew it! So just as he was close enough to grab me, I would fall down and he would trip over me and I would jump up and run in the opposite direction. That would work for a little while, but eventually I paid the price for making Mr. Brother angry!
One of the things he did to me that made me the angriest happened when we were both teenagers. We had an electric fence south of the house and I needed to climb over it. So I yelled at Mr. Brother to shut the fencer off so I could climb over. He shut it off and I grabbed the wire and swung a leg over. As soon as I was astraddle of it, Mr MEAN Brother turned the fencer back on. There I was, holding that hot wire in my hands and no good way to get off it in a hurry! Mr. Brother was laughing his head off. He thought it was a great trick! I didn't think so...
Older brothers can be mean. I know that...because I had a younger brother too! So what I received from Mr. Brother, I gave back to Mr. Brat! Of course, Mr. Brat had no one to pass the pain on to.
People sometimes do mean things to us. Sometimes it is intentional, but I believe most of the time it is not. And still, it hurts. How do we handle these painful situations? Jesus gives us the answer - and it is a difficult one to swallow!
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave this advice: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you..."
What? Love your enemies? Bless those who curse you? Do good to those who hate you? Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you? It sounds impossible, doesn't it? And it would be, if we had to do it by our own power. But we don't.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He sends us a Counselor to live within us and help us. A human counselor listens to your problems and tells you what to do to fix the situation you are in. Our Counselor is God's Spirit and He has all wisdom! When we are on the receiving end of meanness, the Counselor tells us to love Mr. Meanie! And as we do something loving for that person, we find our anger disappearing and, if they have a heart at all, the Meanie will feel convicted of being so mean towards you. It might take many loving actions before you melt that hard heart, but in the end you are a better person and so are they!
Love your enemies! What great advice!
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