Loving the Unloveable

How do you love someone who by your definition is unloveable? This question has been piercing my brain for several months now. How can I love someone who has done things that are “unforgivable”? How can I show love to people who it isn’t easy to show love to?

Some people make it so easy to love them. They throw you week long birthdays and are there to listen to you whenever you need them. They encourage your dreams and support you when your dreams are crazy. They are beautiful inside and out. 

But what about those people who just don’t deserve your love?

Those people who may have disappointed you time after time. Those people who spread rumors behind your back. Those people who betrayed you and your family. Your dad who was never around. Your mom who doesn’t support you. Your siblings who lie to you. Your friends who take advantage of you. Those people who are just kind of annoying to be around.

What about those people who abuse kids? What about the mom who is so caught up in drugs and alcohol that her children slowly starve to death? What about pastors who molest children? What about men who keep 13 year old girls as sex slaves? What about witch doctors who ensnare entire communities into fear and false beliefs? 

HOW DO YOU LOVE THOSE PEOPLE?

My mind rages a bit when I hear about some of the atrocities that happen in this world. I think about the girls who i am going to encounter on this trip or the kids that I used to work with in social services and I for a second I don’t have any pity for their abusers. For just a second I am so angry that I could scream. How could anyone be so horrible? Those. Terrible. People. Don’t DESERVE mercy. I want vengeance for the innocent lives they have stolen. 

Then I stop.

And I remember.

I am one of those people.

I am one of those terrible people who doesn’t deserve forgiveness and grace. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Ecclesiastes 7:20 says “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.” I am in no way better or more righteous than those people who I don’t think deserve my grace and mercy much less God’s. Yet God CHOSE to forgive me. 

And I remember.

That it is only by God’s grace that I am where I am today. Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” It is God who has protected me. I could have ended up on many different roads in my life and it is by the grace of God that I didn’t end up in some of the situations that these “sinners who are beyond forgiveness” are in. 

And I remember. 

We are called to love the unloveable. In Matthew 5:42-48 Jesus is clearly asking me to love the people who are are not the easiest to love, because he does. In verse 45 it says “He makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good.” What an awesome statement. His mercy extends to all men…why can’t mine?