Five Minute Friday!

Here’s how it works, from Lisa-Jo’s {Gypsy-Mama} site:

Let’s just write and not worry if it’s just right or not. Here’s how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing or tweaking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in my right side bar}

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard. {And if you love us, consider turning off word verification for the day to make it easier for folks to leave you some encouragement}

Today’s Five Minute Writing Prompt topic is: The Hard Love

GO

What does it mean to love someone who loves you back? someone who is kind to you? someone who is “easy” to love? For me, and for many of us I suspect, it is easy to love someone who is lovable, and loves us and is kind to us.

But Jesus raises the bar. Love gets harder. He loved us when we were yet sinners. He loved us at our most unlovable. Not only that, he tells us that we must also “love our enemies” and do good to those who hate us. Because, he says, this is love: love your neighbor as yourself.

That is hard love. It is hard because it means letting go of myself, ourselves, and loving the other person, in spite of our own feelings and needs and wants. I have to admit it is hard for me, especially when I am lied to, hurt… or if it is someone who is not kind to me, or does not like me.

But the call of Jesus is this. It is a hard one. It is not an easy call. Loving isn’t fluffy, it is hard, nitty-gritty, in the frontlines of daily living. And it involves a great risk– losing ourselves.

STOP

{If you’d like to join in, just link up to Lisa-Jo by clicking here.  It is a fun writing exercise, no pressure and interesting to see what comes to the surface after only 5 minutes.}