Giving Love To The
Undeserving
“You are the most excellent of men and
your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.”
Psalm 45:2
God’s grace is most real when we
extend it to others…ain’t it the truth. One of the challenges that we
experience is that we are quick to want and receive grace, but
slow to give it to others. Often we find that in the giving of grace God is
able to help us to see in a deeper way, what He
has done for us. It is easy for people
that we can easily tolerate, but often more difficult with those
who grate on us.
A woman
testified to the transformation in her life that had resulted through her
experience in conversion. She declared, "I’m so glad I received
the Lord in my life. I have an uncle I used to hate so much I vowed I’d never
go to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time." I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not,
but something had made a change in her life and it all began with the love of
Christ changing her heart.
C.S. Lewis quoted Augustine, who said, "God gives where He finds empty hands." Then Lewis noted that a man whose hands are
full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Then Yancey wrote: "Grace must be
received. Lewis explains that what I have termed grace abuse stems from a
confusion of condoning and forgiving. To condone an evil is simply to ignore
it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted, as
well as offered, if it is to be complete…and a man who admits no guilt can accept
no
forgiveness." Ultimately, it is when we truly receive God’s grace
that it changes our lives. We have to have empty hands to receive
God’s grace.
Rabbi
Michael Weisser lived in Lincoln, Nebraska
and for more than
3 years, Larry Trapp, a self-proclaimed Nazi & Ku Klux Klansman, directed a
torrent of hate-filled mailings & phone calls toward him. Trapp
promoted white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and other messages of prejudice,
declaring his apartment the KKK state headquarters and himself the grand
dragon. His whole purpose in life seemed to be to spew out hate-ridden racial
slurs & obscene remarks against Weisser and all those like him. At first, the Weisser’s were so afraid they
locked their doors and worried themselves almost sick over the safety of their
family.
But one day
Rabbi Weisser found out that Trapp was a 42-year-old clinically blind, double
amputee.
And he became convinced that Trapp’s own physical helplessness was a source of
the bitterness he expressed. So Rabbi
Weisser decided to do the unexpected. He left a message on Trapp’s answering
machine, telling him of another side of life…a life free of hatred &
racism. Rabbi Weisser said, "I probably called 10 times & left
messages before he finally picked up the phone & asked me why I was
harassing him. I said that I’d like to help him. I
offered him a ride to the grocery store or to the mall." Trapp was
stunned. Disarmed by the kindness & courtesy, he started thinking. He later
admitted, through tears, that he heard in the Rabbi’s voice, "something I
hadn’t experienced in years. It was love."
Slowly the bitter man began to soften.
One night he
called the Weisser’s and said he wanted out, but didn’t know how. They grabbed a bucket of fried chicken and
took him dinner. Before long they made a
trade: in return for their love he gave them his swastika rings, hate tracts,
& Klan robes. That same day Trapp gave up his Ku Klux Klan recruiting job
and dumped the rest of his propaganda in the trash. "They showed me so
much love that I couldn’t help but love them back," he finally confessed.
If that could happen in Lincoln,
Nebraska, what could happen
anywhere in our communities, in our neighborhoods, if we truly began to live
lives that showed the love of Jesus to those around us? The true sign of
healing comes when we reach out with an undeserving love because we have been
given an undeserved love.
David wrote in Psalm 45,
“You are the most excellent of
men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you
forever.” (Psalm 45:2)
Have you
forgotten about God’s blessings in your life recently? His forgiveness…His grace… He unconditional
love given to you? And have you
forgotten that He wants to extend those blessings through you?
His care…His touch…His mercy… for
those who are undeserving? You never
know when He might transformation another life that seems far from reachable. Just ask Rabbi Weisser.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Has there been a person in the past few years that
you felt you could not love?
2) Ask God to give you a heart of prayer for
them and see if He might work a miracle through your life, for
their salvation.
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright
2014- Terry Risser
No comments:
Post a Comment