Love Your Enemies - The Most Incredible Thing I've Seen Today... · 6:40am Oct 6th, 2019
“Love your enemies.”
It’s a phrase we often hear, whether we’re Christian or not. I think most people can agree that it is a laudable sentiment. But, as with many such weighty concepts, I think it’s one where the true meaning often eludes us. People assume that to “love your enemies” means to just forget the bad things our enemies do, or to blithely sing kumbaya in some sort of little inner utopia with no bearing on reality. Often it is reduced to generic and shallow kindness, and discarded when things really get hard.
That’s not what “love your enemies” means.
To love is to will the good of the other. It doesn’t mean we like the other. It doesn’t mean we forget what the other has done. It doesn’t even mean we let the other off without punishment. It means to will the good – to will that the other may become better, fuller, healthier in mind, body, and spirit. To a religious person, this may be described as willing the other to become holier, closer to God and to neighbor. To an atheist, it might simply mean desiring that the other gets his or her life in order. Whatever the case, the other may be loved even when the other is your enemy, because love doesn’t demand an absence of conflict or pain.
In truth, it is in suffering that we see the most profound and powerful acts of love. It takes courage to love someone when everything is screaming at us to will harm. To love when it hurts is an act of heroism and strength.
Several days ago, former police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean. When the sentence was handed down, members of the family were allowed to make statements before the court. And that is where something extraordinary happened.
Botham’s younger brother Brandt, a man who was hurt especially deeply by his brother’s death, turned to the woman who murdered his beloved brother… and forgave her.
But that’s not all he did.
In front of the court and the world, Brandt turned to Amber and said, “I love you just like anyone else.”
And then, “I want the best for you because I know that that’s exactly what Botham would want you to do, and the best would be [to] give your life to Christ.”
Brandt then asked the judge for permission to hug Amber, which the judge granted. This brave young man got up, walked into the center of the room, and embraced the woman who murdered his brother.
I don’t have adequate words to describe what I felt when I watched Brandt’s testimony of love. I’ve linked the article and clip below, and it speaks for itself.
All I will say is that if more people will have the courage of this young man to cry love into the face of hate, then it will be a brighter world.
"I Forgive You." Please share.
And then Amber Guyger's police cronies murdered witness Joshua Brown in cold blood. So we see how well that works.
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There are no quick or easy solutions to great troubles. Change begins because one person is willing to step off the violent path. Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. succeeded where others failed because they responded to evil with love. Whatever else surrounds this entire tragic case, Brandt Jean deserves to be lauded for who he has chosen to be. We don't yet know the full details of Joshua Brown's tragic death, but whatever is revealed will not undermine Brandt's courage. He made a brave choice, and no one can take that away.
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Don't ruin this
Stories like this are the reason I’m merely a reluctant misanthrope.
Well, it probably doesn't come from "love," per se, but I can't bring myself to seriously wish death on anyone I know (personally). Sure, I'll still wish people I dislike would remove themselves entirely from my life, and often enough I wish for a small bit of misfortune to fall on them, but not death or anything seriously bad like that: I think about the fact that they have their own lives; their own past and circuimstances that led to this moment; and how no matter how much of a jerk they seem to me, they most likely have family and friends who love them and would be devastated should they really die. That's why I only wish they'd disappear from my life, though with appropriate karma for my suffering.
Ah, the wonders of sonder.
I saw this beautiful example of love and mercy as well.
Such actions are truly supernatural.
I can respect the sentiment, but forgiving someone once they've had their punishment handed down (and into a system that honestly doesn't care for guilt and just seeks to punish with little to no attempts to rehabilitate) doesn't quite carry the message of love for me. It's simply a matter of the account being settled.
It's not quite loving forgiveness. It more, the matter is past us now, let's move on. Still, I hope the family in the article can indeed move on from their loss.