A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. That is how Scripture describes our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look into your enemy’s heart and you’ll see pain there.
Perhaps, yes, it is pain he or she made for themselves.
And perhaps it is pain someone else made for them, or fear instills in them.
Before you respond to your enemy, remember their pain.
But — and this is merely being realistic — also remember your own.
We are not required, in order to love, to acquiesce to another’s pain narrative.
Listen, yes… intently.
But part of Jesus’ grief was how so many rejected his love and his identity because his very existence caused them pain.
Their pain was rooted in their unwillingness or even inability to release death in order to embrace life.
“He who loses his life will find it,” Jesus said.
That remains true, even if it causes us pain.
