Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 320

Running the copier: A parable of loving enemies

She didn’t wait to sit down.

“Information,” she said.

“What?” I said. I had barely turned away from my keyboard to get started with today’s conversation.

After writing “Information” on my whiteboard, she sat down. “That’s our sun and rain. God has rain and sun that he can bless people with. For many of us, the thing that we have to to show that we can love our enemies is information.“

I must have looked confused. Mostly because I was.

“Look,” she said, elbows on the desk. “Let me illustrate before...

Understanding love

She showed up on time. And started talking as soon as I said “hi.”

“That ‘annoying person’ exercise was really hard. But not for the reason you might think. I started thinking about my annoying person. And I realized that none of the things that aggravate me about that person really matter. There aren’t any reasons to hate them. So I started thinking, ‘I should probably love them.’ And I realized that I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, maybe my problem with loving enemies is...

Enemy or ‘enemy’?

She pulled out a 3×5 card and laid it on my desk. It said, “So love the people who 1) hate me or 2) hate my people or 3) are hate incarnate. Is that what enemies are?”

“That’s a great way to summarize it,” I said. “So, do you have anyone?”

“Actually,” she said, “I think I do.”

“Can I push a little bit,” I asked. “It’s not just someone that ticks you off?”

“How is that different?”

I leaned back. “Ah. Because they may not hate you, you may hate them. Or may be jealous of them. Or you may have had a...

Loving enemies: a conversation

She sat across the desk from me. She set her coffee on the desk. She said, “Love your enemies. Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ I don’t know what that means.’”

She picked up her coffee.She took a drink.

I waited.

“I mean, on a really great day I can love my friends. On a normal day, I can barely look at myself, let alone love myself. And Jesus says I’m supposed to love my enemies? I’m not arguing with Jesus. I mean, he’s Jesus. But I have no idea what it mean...

All aspects of my life.

Every season when the Olympics appear on our television, I think the same thought: ”I wish I did anything as well as they do their thing.” And then I sit and watch. Or I come in here and write. Or I take a nap.When the thought came this year, I was rereading The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard.

Willard suggests that we often look at the cool things Jesus did and we think, “”I wish I did anything as well as Jesus did being Jesus.” But we look at the hard things he demands and we thi...