Today’s post is a simple exercise……. sort of a way to kick the tires…….. to see what Christianity is like for the non-believer……. or to refresh yourself if you are a believer.
Take a minute…….bring to mind somebody you are mad at. It needs to be somebody close to you…… somebody you interact with regularly. Please don’t pick somebody whom you don’t deal with directly……. please don’t pick Trump, Clinton, etc.
This could be somebody who has disappointed you, maybe a family member. It could be someone who has failed to deliver on a promise, maybe a businessman. It could be somebody who has physically or financially harmed you. The hurt that they caused could be recent……….or it could be decades ago. But, the person must be present in your life today.
The exercise is to love them. If they are truly dangerous, you may need to do it from a distance. It is better if you can love them up close.
Practically speaking, how do you go about it? Here are some suggestions.
Pray for them……. you can skip this if you are a non- believer….. the exercise will still work.
Call to mind something positive about them……. and everybody has good points. With some people you just have to dig a little deeper.
If possible engage then in a positive way…… talk to them, text them, send them a Christmas card.
Say or do something nice. It may be something that they really don’t deserve…….. something that they haven’t earned. (Sounds a little like grace?) If it feels a little weird…….well that’s kind of the point.
Finally, and this is the hard part, forgive them for whatever they did that made you mad. If you can forgive them for just one day, that’s enough. If you can forgive them forever, that’s even better.
If you can pull this off, for even one day, you will discover something. You will have given somebody a very valuable gift. The recipient of the gift though……….is not the other guy…..it is you. And the longer that you can keep it up……… the greater the gift that you give yourself.
You are probably sceptical……… but if you sincerely try the exercise, you will be surprised. You might say…….”this is all fine and good……. but what does it have to do with Christianity?”…………everything.
This is the very heart of Christianity…….to love your fellow man….specifically those who have mistreated you. More than that, this is the example that Christ lived out with his life and death.
You can see that this is way different from what the pundits and talking heads on TV tell you to do. ( I’m talking about the Hannitys and the Acostas of the world.) This is the difference between the Christian world (properly done) and the secular world.
This exercise will probably have little effect on the person whom you chose…….although you might be surprised.
But, after a day, consider whether YOU are better off or not. I am convinced that the most reliable path to true, durable happiness……..to joy……..is loving others.
If you find that loving others makes you happy, then pursue it. If you are rebuffed, try again with somebody else.
By loving others, even those who don’t deserve it, you are following Christ’s example and his teaching.
Christianity, it turns out, is far simpler than you thought.