“I really don’t like that guy!” I thought again. Worse than that, everywhere I go, there he is. Four weeks at the man camp. He was on my crew. He slept two beds away and even when I eat, there he is at my table. Something has got to give, I could not take another two months living around him.
I had been excited when I found out that they were hiring out of Bozeman for expansion on the coal fire power plant about 60 miles outside the city. My kind of job. Seven days a week. Room and board provided on site where a portable man camp had been set up. Three months of big money. What could be better?
It had started out good too. When I arrived on site, I was given crew and living assignments. Things were going smooth. That is until a week later when Roy hired on. A day earlier I had been promoted to ‘pusher’ to ramrod the crew and keep everyone moving. That first shift things went well. A good crew of guys and we did what the boss wanted. But as soon as Roy arrived, all that changed. Complaining and griping from day one, he turned a good job into a nightmare. Now three weeks later, he was blaming me for all his problems. Standing in front of me, had just cursed me to my face.
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27-28) “Really? Did Jesus mean I had to love people I could not stand being in the same room with? How am I supposed to do that?” I had heard these verses repeatedly ever since I was a kid in Catholic school but now as a man who had made a commitment to truly follow Jesus, I felt overwhelmed.
It was maybe the one thing when I came to the Lord that I really felt powerless about. As an addict, I had led a life where I had no problem loving myself, but to love someone else as I loved me. That wasn’t happening. Addiction is all about self. When the drugs run low, you will do just about anything to make sure you stay high. It is every man or woman for themselves. That carried into every facet of my life. So how could a man with that background truly love anyone? The answer is simple, I couldn’t.
It took me quite a while to understand this. But when I was ready to accept the idea that: “…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners. Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) When I could accept that I was loved that much, His love changed me.
It takes the love of God to enable us to love others. Think of it! Look at those in the Gospels that were changed by His love. Hated people, who if Jesus was like me wouldn’t have been in the same room with, but instead he sought them out. Tax collectors Matthew and Zacchaeus. An outcast Samaritan woman alone at a well drawing water. A crazy man who had a legion of demons. A woman named Mary who had quite a few demons of her own to deal with. So many more. If you don’t know these stories, try Googling them, you too can be amazed as I was. Sinners lost and even still in their sins, Jesus loved them. They were changed because they were willing to accept that love. Love like that changed me too.
I know something now I did not in my addicted life. We cannot truly love anyone unless we can see ourselves as God does. Here is a great verse, “I am a new creation In Him. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Our Father God sees me as a new creation In Jesus. That, to me, is the moral of all the Gospel stories and even my life. Confessing I am a sinner and accepting I am forgiven now allows me the ability to forgive and maybe even opens the door to understanding that person who I cannot get along with. If I am that loved, so is the person I am having issues with. It will change the way you see people!
Years ago, back on that job site. I had none of these thoughts. I did everything I could to get Roy fired. And in the end, I succeeded. I felt vindicated and very self-righted about the whole situation. But later I heard that Roy was miserable because he had just experienced something no man should have to deal with, the loss of a child. His son had been killed in a car accident. Even when I learned this I felt no remorse. But I do now. Maybe just one loving word from me might have changed everything. I will never know. I thank God for His forgiveness and today pray I can show His love to someone in need, if they like it or not. And I pray you can accept the love of one who already died to save just you. That kind of love is a game changer!
Blessings John
8/7/17
Loving others…Jesus has the way
