Impossible

Loving is so difficult! Sometimes it's because the people we are called to love are not so lovable. (They are way too much like us.) Sometimes the love they need is so difficult and challenging to give. Sometimes it's because the love God wants us to give doesn't seem to be very loving. Sometimes it's because the love we give is resented or, even worse, taken for granted. Sometimes our love is used to take advantage of us. Love is hard work--"a labor of love."
Yet, God tells us that the entire Christian walk can be summed up in two statements: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." "Love your neighbor as I have loved you." And He adds--the second one is really just the first one stated in a different way. He, also, says "love your enemies." Didn't know that your enemies are also your neighbors?
We are called to love because He first loved us. We were not very lovable. The Son endured the cross for us. His love comes at times through discipline--and that's not much "fun." And how often do we resent His loving discipline? How often do we take His love for granted? How often have we taken advantage of His love? And still He loves us with all His heart and reminds us that His love for us is inescapable. And we are to love as He loves us.
One reason I struggle with loving others is because I forget that the people God has put into my life are there because He wants me to love them. Not someone else. Me. They are my love assignment. Another reason I struggle with loving others is because I love me more than I love them--and I believe the lie that I deserve to be loved by them, and if they're not doing that, why should I bother loving them? I, also, struggle with loving others when my love for Him grows cold. Tepid love makes God ill. I cannot love others when I become indifferent to the cross and the love He demonstrated there for me while I was yet a sinner.
Loving others will always be a labor--hard work. His love for me on the cross must always break my heart. My broken heart must be surrendered to Him so the Spirit can empower me to love "my assignments" so that they cannot deny that "God is love." My broken-hearted love must not demand to be loved back, must not be thwarted by rejection. And it must not grow cold when taken advantage of. Impossible, you say, (I say) to love like that! But that's why He gave us His Spirit so that we could be His Love made visible to all those He brings into our life. Surrender to the Spirit and discover the simplest most empowering truth to be a reality: "With God, all things are possible."