Let’s face it……..there are really rotten people out there. And there are many more who are sometimes unkind.
Fact is…….there are a lot of them.
You will meet and interact with one of them today…….tomorrow at the latest.
Consider the last person who treated you badly:
He cut you off in traffic……..then gave you the finger.
She said things about you that weren’t true…..behind your back.
He took credit for something special that you did at work.
She excluded you from a social event that everyone else attended.
I didn’t return your call.
You passed judgement on something that someone else did……or didn’t do………when you didn’t have all of the facts……because you never have all of the facts.
Like it or not……..this is the human condition.
Someone treats us badly……and we get mad. Sometimes we retaliate, sometimes we just stew over it.
One of the best movies that I have ever watched is “The Shack”. I highly recommend it. If you haven’t seen it, it is about an encounter between a man who has been greviously wronged…….and the Trinity. God is played by an older black woman. Whenever a human is mentioned she says, “I’m especially fond of him/her.” And that is one of the major subplots of the film.
We are all flawed…..broken. We all carry a kernel of evil around with us…….all day………every day. Obviously, some of us are 95% evil, some are 0.0001% evil. From the perspective of a God who is completely free of evil…….the difference is inconsequential.
And yet…….God loves us…….every last one of us.
God is especially fond……..of me.
And I really like that.
What I struggle with is the fact that God loves the jerk too. God loves the jerk just as much as he loves me.
God loves jerks just as much as he loves nice poeple.
So, the next time someone mistreats you…..when you are getting ready to give them the treatment that they so desperately deserve……..remember that this rotten person is someone whom God is ” especially fond of”.
When you attack them…….you are attacking God.
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. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus, Mathew 5:44-45, ESV
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Paul, Romans 12:19, ESV