In my ramblings around Twitter I stumbled upon Rainn Wilson (Dwight)'s feed and he links to this site he founded called SoulPancake. SoulPancake is trying to get people to discuss life's big questions; to have discussions about spirituality, creativity and philosophy. For example, someone recently asked the question: Can feminists be feminine? I loved the post and responses.
But a little further down is the question: What will it really take to make loving your enemies possible? In that post they included this beautifully simple video that reminded me of the things I had just learned in Left to Tell:
Love Your Enemies from Kristen Miller on Vimeo.
I'm fortunate that I don't have anyone I could legitimately consider an enemy and, in truth, I couldn't even think of anyone who has wronged me that I need to forgive. But the more I thought about this question, the more I realized that my answer is: making a concerted effort to just love everyone. To see everyone as a child of God, regardless of their choices or how we get along. A general increase of love will go such a long way.
So today I made a greater effort to love. I reached out to someone I usually don't really get along with. I prayed to love someone I struggle with. I was nice to a grumpy cashier at the grocery store. I focused on remembering that we're all children of God.
And you know what? Tonight I feel remarkably at peace. Like the world is a good and beautiful place. So I just thought I'd share the love.
*Reference to Romans 12:20. Lovely little explanation of what could be meant by "coals of fire" here. Great talk about the need for forgiveness and love here.
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6 comments:
Love this post. I've been thinking about the same thing a lot lately.
The other day this scripture really stood out to me, more than it ever has: Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10). I'm trying to keep that in mind as I go throughout my day, and it makes a big difference in how I think about and interact with people.
Angela- that's a really good thought...that scripture hadn't occurred to me in this context but you're totally right. I love that.
I like that a lot. I also don't have any enemies. Sometimes I wish I did, so that I could do some major forgiving. But I guess sometimes it's harder to forgive the people that annoy you than it is to forgive a major wrong.
But if you ever feel like you need an enemy, I'd be happy to volunteer. I think I'd be a very friendly enemy though, so I don't know how that would work.
For me, the hardest things sometimes are to judge the sin and not the sinner and to focus on people's strengths rather than worrying/complaining about their weaknesses. Same for myself, really.
Great post. The world can definitely use more love.
Beautiful post. Amelia liked the video. She thought they were having a snowball fight. If only we could all maintain that childlike innocence huh?
Thank you so much for continuing to spread this work around. As the animator, it amazes me how far this little piece has gone to move people into real conversations - because in searching for our personal definitions of 'enemy' the 'negative space' that remains shapes our definition of love.
Thanks again for passing this along.
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