Friendship part 2
The greatest love a man can have is to lay down his life for his friends. To give everything he has and everything he is, no matter how its received. And, as we kind of saw yesterday, we are all friends. Even if we don't know it yet. This, to me, really goes back to all those Rants and sermons I've done about "loving the unloveable." Because we destroy our enemies by making them our friends, right? We kill 'em with kindness. And I've come to realize that fondness--which is one of the definitions of "friends"--goes hand in hand with love. But NOT the way we generally think of it. NOT in the sense of, "I will love you because I'm fond of you." Jesus had this to say about that kind of attitude, "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 5:46). Which, of course, is not to say that you SHOULDN'T love people who love you. Of course you should. And that's easy. That comes natural, even to a natural mindset. "You scratched my back? Sure, I'll scratch yours." But what Jesus was saying, a few verses earlier, is, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). His point was, love EVERYBODY. If ALL you do is love those that love you then you've neglected those who probably really need it. Because people who are hard to love probably aren't getting it anywhere. So if you refuse them too... well... shrug. Then we get to the end of the chapter and Jesus says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Which was NOT Jesus giving us an impossible mission. Jesus was NOT saying, "Be perfect... or else." He had just finished telling us HOW to be perfect. And the way you be perfect, or holy, or whatever you want to call it, is by being friendly. To everybody. Loving those who love you AND those who don't. Love is unconditional. It isn't at all dependent on who the person is or what they've done. Because love isn't about getting. Love IS giving. And when you know and believe that you are loved, that's when you CAN love. That's when you have something to give away. Something that is too good to keep to yourself. Something that is so good that you WANT to give it away. To everybody. Unconditionally. Let me say it like this: You can build walls, or you can build bridges. You can exclude people or you can include people. You can be patient enough to turn the other cheek when someone offends you... and love them anyway... or you can make things worse for everyone involved. I've seen it so many times. When someone does you dirty... and you turn around and love them... its almost like they don't know what to do at that point. And, listen, there ARE people who will take advantage of your love. But so what? Give it all you've got no matter what. And I'm not saying you should continuously let it happen. Do your best and forget the rest. Because if you give it your all it will either be enough, or it won't. And if its not enough, at least you did what YOU could do. At least YOU were a friend. Whether your friendship was received or not. The point is not getting a response. The point is giving what you've got. The point is being a friend no matter what. Loving people no matter what!