The poll results are in from my last essay,
in which I asked y’all to command my pen for the next essay.
The winner by a narrow margin, “From Maya to Simulation Theory” is under construction. Excellent choice. It’s gonna be a banger.
In the meantime, I already had the brief essay below cooking, so I thought I’d go ahead and send it out.
Why and how I try to love my enemies (not just cause the Bible tells me so)
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
- Matthew 5:43-44
The only reason anyone ever acts cruelly, hurtfully, or oppressively is because they are coming from a position of weakness. In essence, they don’t know how to love or they are still figuring it out. Maybe they don’t know how to practice love in this one instance or this one area of life, or maybe they haven’t figured it out at all. But all humans have at least the capacity to love, even if it’s a weak and latent capacity.
And there are many times in my life when I haven’t quite known how to love, when I have acted hurtfully toward others in my ignorance. Even if we’re dealing with someone who is very, very hurtful or oppressive, the distance between me and my enemy is much smaller than the distance between me and the divine ideal of goodness. In fact, I am still figuring out how to love, too.
I am human. I have feelings. Sometimes I have big, angry feelings that can turn to resentment or vengefulness if I allow them to. If another person’s hurtful behavior continually triggers these kind of feelings in me, I am probably not serving anyone by sticking around to endure it. But I can still love that person—from a distance—by seeking within myself to understand and forgive rather than to judge and begrudge. This is a worthy endeavor, always, no matter how severe the transgressions.
Everything that exists in me contributes to the totality of all that exists. The more hatred in me, the more hatred in the world. The more animosity in me, the more animosity in the world. The more conflict in me, the more conflict in the world. I set my intention on transmuting resentment into compassion and conflict to peace, wherever and whenever I discover them in myself, in order to “be the change I want to see.”
Sometimes one forgiveness, one acceptance of what is, one instance of genuine good will directed toward the hurtful person isn’t enough. Sometimes the angry feelings keep rising again and again. It’s okay to have those feelings. It’s okay to trust them. They are telling me something important. But it’s also okay to process and release them as they arise. It’s okay if I need to repeat this endeavor many times. Prayer helps immensely.
The trick is in the praying. Prayer is an acknowledgement of my smallness and insufficiency relative to the vastness of creation and the mystery of the divine will. It is inescapably humbling, and therefore makes a suitable substrate for love to germinate. When I include those who hurt me in my prayers, if I have just a scrap of genuineness and a sliver of compassion about me, I can’t help but feel my heart soften toward those persecutors. And when I start to feel like the angery emoji again, it’s time to pray again.
When I pray for those who persecute me, sometimes it’s hard to know what to pray. I can never go wrong with praying for the person’s healing and growth. It never hurts to wish them peace. All beings are in need of these. If I have a specific request for them, I add at the end: If it’s for the highest good of all concerned. Because what do I know, in the grand, sweeping, holy scheme? If I’m at a total loss, I pray for guidance to let me know how and what to pray.
Sometimes there is a knot or a tangle—something that needs straightening out in me in relation to this enemy situation. But these tricky knots are very difficult to see because I’m standing inside of them, instead of seeing them from a God’s-eye view. Again, the trick is in the praying. I acknowledge: You know me through and through. Everything about me, you know. All my strengths and weaknesses, my beauty and my ugliness. Everything I keep hidden from others and even from myself is clear and apparent from your vantage point. And then I ask: Please show me my own errors, and help me develop the courage to confront them.
There are seasons in life when I don’t have “enemies.” Sometimes there’s no particular person dragging me down or persecuting me. But I still like to keep in practice. A fun challenge is to choose a group I disagree with—for example, rabid statists. Or a public figure who seems to embody that global destructive energy we’ve all come to feel in our bones. Klaus Schwab, let’s say. And I pray for them and send them love. No love given, whether in direct action or through thought and prayer, ever goes undelivered, nor can it ever do harm. That’s my belief. Even if the intended recipient appears to my eyes to be evil. Maybe the person I’m praying for has too many walls around their heart to receive the love I am sending right now, but eventually it will reach them. In the fullness of time.
#9 reminds me of that great Slipknot lyric: "Fuck me, I'm all out of enemies!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mbQ1BsxZE :)
But jokes aside, this is another beautiful and inspiring article.
... OK, one more joke, I was just thinking that maybe that tin foil, Bond villain stormtrooper outfit Schwab keeps wearing is actually designed with particular angles and specific materials to deflect prayers. It would make a lot of sense. (https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/145nee4/liberal_hero_klaus_schwab_wearing_a_klingon_outfit/?rdt=54296)