Love Your Enemy.

Let’s talk about everyone's favorite movie: Frozen (I know it's been overdone, just hang with me ;). In case you don't know the plot, allow me to summarize. Basically, the movie focuses on two princesses: Anna and Elsa. Elsa has ice powers so, logically, her parents locked her in her room for her entire childhood after she accidentally hurts Anna. As in most Disney movies, the girl's parents die in a tragic accident, leaving the two all alone. The time comes for Elsa to become queen, and they have a big party where Anna finally sees her sister after years. Anna pushes and pressures Elsa by trying to get her to approve a marriage to a man she just met. Elsa has a major freakout and reveals to everyone she has powers. She, then, proceeds to run away to build an ice castle in the mountains. Anna follows her, and Elsa has another major freakout resulting in accidentally shooting Anna in the heart with ice. Then, in good sisterly fashion, she kicks her out of her space. While Anna is trying to get rid of the ice in her heart, Elsa gets arrested. Long story short, Anna freezes to death while saving her sister from being murdered. I may have skipped the talking snowman, trolls, the lover and his reindeer, and the worst betrayal of 2013, but you get the point.

The thing that has always stuck with me in this movie is Anna's constant pursuit of her sister. Despite Elsa shutting her out and harming her over and over again, Anna’s love for her never dwindled. I think anyone who saw the film would agree that Elsa didn't really deserve Anna's unconditional love for her, but she gave it anyway. This is a perfect illustration of God's love for us and the love we ought to show those who harm us. More often than not, we let our hurt, envy, and bitterness "freeze" our hearts. You see, after Anna "freezes to death", she unthaws shortly after because the curse can be broken by an act of “true love”. The act of “true love” is (spoiler alert) Anna’s sacrifice of her life to save her sister. The theme that is repeated throughout the movie is the idea that "love will thaw a frozen heart". While this is a very fictional story, the message is true for all Christians today. When we choose to love our enemies, our hearts will soften toward them, and God will bless us and grant us peace, as a result.

Okay, enough about Frozen. Let’s really get into it! In Luke 6:27-28, Jesus says, “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." I think many people believe loving your enemy must mean closeness to them or restoring relationships with them. And yes, sometimes God does call us to do that. But often, "loving your enemy" is more about the posture of your heart towards them. It isn't about the acceptance of toxicity from others, but it's, rather, a solution to keep the toxicity out of you so that you might maintain a position of peace. To do this, we must remove the bitterness, anger, envy, etc from our hearts and wish them good. Pray for their healing and nearness to God, and bless their life. The more you do it, the more your heart will "unthaw". The mask of their wrongdoings will melt away until you see nothing but a child who is unconditionally and fervently loved by God.

The reality is, you will never interact with anyone who isn't loved by God. When you speak, react, and even think, remember how much God loves them. Then in response, love them the same, regardless of their political party, whoever they voted for in the last election, their past, their race, their religion, their beliefs, etc. Each and every one of us is living proof that God loves the unlovable. When God chooses to love us, He looks at us through the lens of being His child. He sees past our wrongdoings and sees the image through which He created us. Our wrongs are a product of our own ignorance, but they don't change who we are in Christ.

If you consider yourself a Christian, you need to learn to love how God loves: unconditionally. Today’s society is failing pretty epically at this. We only love them if they voted for Biden. We only love them if they voted for Trump. We only love them if they got the vaccine. We only love them if they support my beliefs and my truth. Everyone has so many different opinions on anything and everything. We have, ultimately, stopped listening to others out of pride and a desperate need for our voices to be heard. In doing so, we've stopped listening to understand and started listening only to respond. We get so lost in all the noise, that we forget our calling to love our enemy. Before we know it, we are hiding behind a screen, posting malicious things we wouldn't dare say to a person's face or God would say to His children. Ultimately, our pride always goes before destruction.

Now you may be thinking, well it's just the times we live in, everyone does it, I'm just responding to what's already out there. Here's the truth of the matter: as Christians, we have the Holy Spirit living in us which elevates us to a different level. Because of this, we cannot continue to act like we don't have something that sets us apart. We have experienced a love unlike anything else offered on this earth. So why would we play to a worldly standard that God has already elevated us above? Yet, the sad truth is, most of the time when we are in the position to give something that Jesus would give, we would rather punish our enemies instead of blessing them. Now more than ever, the world is watching Christians and looking for any way to "cancel" us. This is why it is so important for us to respond in a way that is honorable to God whenever we interact with His people. You might be the only glimpse of Jesus somebody may ever see. Anybody can love those who love them back, but to love someone who hates you is a difficult task. To truly understand God's love and demonstrate it, we need to love those who do us wrong. If we can't find love for those who harm us and mistreat us, how will the world distinguish us from them?

Another important factor in loving your enemies is forgiveness. We are called to forgive our enemies because Christ forgave us. The truth is, we are all sinners, and none of us deserve to be forgiven; yet God forgave us, anyways. Most people think they are "good" when compared to the person next to them and compared to the worldly standard. The problem with viewing ourselves this way is that we are making the wrong comparison. The reality is, we are all at odds with a perfect God to which we will never even come close, both now and forever. You may not be doing “bad” things, but your good deeds don't grant you salvation. Christ's sacrifice does. Ultimately, we contribute nothing to our salvation besides our sins. My sin isn't any less sinful than those that have done the most horrible of things. We are sinners who are loved by God, which is an amazing reality, but He, also, holds that same kind of love for those that we call our enemies.

All that to be said, one of the greatest acts of love we can do for our enemies is to pray for them. Now, that doesn’t mean you just have a little gossip time with God. We need to truly lift up God's children before Him. Think of Jesus’ prayer when He hung on the cross for our sins. After being beaten, spat on, and mocked, He prayed “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). Pray for the salvation of your enemies and for God to be gracious to them. Pray that God would open their hearts and minds to the hearing of the Gospel. In turn, pray for God to give you love, patience, forgiveness, and kindness toward them. Pray that God would help you control your anger at their actions so that you might not sin against them. As hard as it may be to love your enemies, perhaps God is bringing you through troubled waters because your enemies don't know how to swim.

May your roots run deep, and your faith remain strong! As always, Stay Rooted, my friends! <3