You have heard it said to love your neighbors as yourself.
A riff, if I may:
You have also heard it said that we see in our enemies what we fear most within ourselves. Jesus, that radical first-century love thug activist, sounds like he had a interesting strategy for confronting personal demons. In so loving our enemies, are we not also expanding our capacity to love ourselves? Here’s a corollary: “I will love the dark, difficult side of my neighbor-not just the warm and friendly side–and I will encourage it to express itself in constructive ways.”
To expand, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “The greatest epochs in our lives are at the points when we gain the courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.”
It is interesting to think of Jesus as a radical – he most certainly was. If around today, he wouldn’t be on all the TV networks and highly respected by the establishment. He’d be more like MLK was, reported on b/c of the massive following of regular people…the people the powerful in society ignored ~
I also like this advice:
“and I will encourage it to express itself in constructive ways” –
that’s the part that inspires me.
thanks Chris!
Thank you! For hanging around and leaving your thoughts!