Real Love

Yesterday I told a story about a little girl who was encouraged through the sweet love of a teacher. Those kinds of stories inspire me and motivate me to be more loving. But can I be really blunt for a minute? I think sometimes its a lot harder to love others than we would like to admit.

This might seem wrong on a lot of levels, but I'm going to tamper a little with the story I shared yesterday. Imagine that before I described Mary Ann's physical deformities and struggles I informed you about her poor behavior and lack of social skills. What if Mary Ann had anger issues and yelled at other kids or acted out during class? Would your heart still have broken over her insecurities? Or would you have struggled to feel compassion for this little girl who seemed to deserve a lot of the unlove that came her way?

You see, there are people like Mary Ann in our world. Sweethearts whose disfigured faces do nothing to hide the love and beauty in their souls. And then there are people whose tragedies have made them rough. Individuals who have felt the unlove of others for so long that they become incapable of returning any love they are shown.

If we truly want to live like Jesus we have to be willing to love everyone. Anyone. No matter how rough their edges or difficult their personalities. We have to be willing to get down and dirty with our love. When Jesus heals the leper in Mark 1 he doesn't just call out from a distance, "Be healed! Now go take a shower!" No way, friends. Mark records it like this:

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Mark 1:41

So as we walk through this week lets keep our eyes open for the people in our own spheres who desperately need our love. Lets pray that our hearts would be filled with compassion and that we would be willing to reach out and touch the unlovable, difficult people in our world. And maybe we need to take a little inventory of our own hearts and remind ourselves yet again that we can be difficult, unlovable people too.