In the classroom, my goal as a teacher is to enable my students to master skills in English. I introduce new information or concepts, offer my students practice in the application of the material through literature and writing, and give a culminating task or test to see if my kiddos got it.
God does the same thing with us in life.
I am currently in a study of the fruit of the Spirit along with some of my teacher-friends, and last week, my focus was love. The 1st Corinthians 13 kind of love—you know, patient, kind, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs and does not delight in evil love.
When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies in Matthew 22:37-38 to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind. He then states the second greatest commandment in verse 39, which is to love your neighbor as yourself.
I had spent morning after morning diving into scriptures about loving others, about not offending others, and even about "turning the other cheek." I had studied the perfect model of love through Christ’s service here on Earth and his sacrifice on the cross. How could I not pass a test to show that I understood the material?
Test day came---without warning, might I add.
I am certain that had it been multiple choice or essay format, I would have done well, but it’s a struggle when the test is real-world application of the material.
Of course, He wouldn’t test me with someone that I already loved because that would be too easy. It had to be someone unlovable. I knew that much so I kept my attention focused, waiting for a perfect stranger in a bad mood to cross my path, but there was no obnoxious telemarketer or irritated cashier. In fact, He kept it so literal that I missed it. Yes, He used a neighbor.
I was folding clothes and singing along with Jesus Culture when my phone rang. Within seconds of the call that started my love test, I was talking of baking up a chocolaty, laxative-enriched pie to deliver to their front door. Everything that 1 Corinthians 13 says love is was not in my being at that moment. I was angry and frustrated, and I was plotting something counter to all that I had been studying.
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| Romans 12:16-19 |
Now, I would never be that vindictive, but I could talk the talk on the phone with my husband, right? Yet, even in our attitude and words, not just our physical actions, we should have a spirit of love. Friends, that is extremely hard.
It is hard because it is a deliberate decision that we must make, and it can’t be based on our emotions. It is also not optional. 1 John 4:21 states that “whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Must—that doesn’t leave us any wiggle room, does it? So as Christians, we must show love no matter what emotion we might be feeling at the moment---even when others around us are not doing the same thing.
Now normally, my husband is my biggest cheerleader and co-conspirator. On any other day, he would have --in jest, of course-- offered to stop by the drug store to pick up the special ingredient or even suggested a better plan than I had originally devised. However, his response was uncharacteristic and, frankly, caught me a bit off guard. (Actually, I believe some angelic host must have momentarily taken possession of him in order to get my spirit in check.) Ben’s words to me were God’s way of telling me that I was choosing the wrong answer.
So instead of searching for the Ex-Lax, I rethought my attitude toward the situation given all that I had studied. Then I did something that I had heard many times at church and something that was very awkward and difficult: I said a very quick prayer that God would bless my neighbors.
One thing that I will challenge my bible study girls with this week as we study love is to pray for someone in their lives whom they find hard to love. So before I give the assignment, I am doing it myself. I have committed to pray every morning that my neighbors will have a very blessed, happy life. (I might also be praying that God blesses them with a lucrative, rewarding job opportunity that relocates them to a place they have always wanted to live. ---Look, I am trying.) And I will continue to say little prayers for them until it isn’t so hard. And maybe by the time that awesome job takes them somewhere far away, I can send them off with some delicious cupcakes that won’t cause frequent bathroom visits.
So I am expecting many more unlovable people in my future because I am clearly not proficient in this skill yet. I just really wish God would consider using the Remind app so that I could get a text about upcoming tests.
