Jesus Loves You (and I’m Trying)

This little t-shirt has gotten quite a bit of attention on my Facebook page tonight.

One of my sweetest friends, Jo Lynn, stopped by my house this afternoon and gifted it to me.

I had heard about the shirt from the “2 sexiest fat men alive”, better known as Rick and Bubba. This is a t-shirt they talked about on their morning show one day and I thought – I need this shirt!

I posted this photo earlier today and my phone is blowing up with notifications!

I asked myself why the photo of my new favorite t-shirt was getting such a response. I think the answer is fairly obvious – we all have that special someone in our life who rubs us like sandpaper! It might be a co-worker, a family member, someone you worship with…these annoying people are literally everywhere.

We could all be great Christians if it weren’t for other people, right? 🙂

No matter how we feel about it, Jesus called us to people.

I know – it is not what you want to hear. We want to love who we want to love and not have any conflict in our lives. That is so much easier. But Jesus didn’t call us to easy.

Those people who grate on our nerves, make us want to smoke a cigarette or take a valium (whatever metaphor works for you here) are placed in our lives for a purpose. Maybe we are the very person who is to be a living messenger of the gospel to them. Or maybe the fact that they rub us like sandpaper is to wear away some junk in our lives that needs to go!

I am a teacher to my very core, and tonight, as I studied scripture, I kept marking the word “teach” in the gospel of Luke. Many times Luke talked about Jesus teaching in the synagogues. The hallmark of a great teacher is the kinds of questions they ask…and Jesus asked some doozies.

In Matthew 5:46, Jesus asked “For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

Basically, it is no big deal to love only those who love you – even dishonorable people like the hated tax collectors did that. Jesus’ love is to carry us beyond our natural tendencies to love only those who love us. His love is to spill over and splash on everyone around us.

Yes – loving some people is harder than others to say the least. #thestruggleisreal

The smart aleck, the braggart, the know-it-all…name your poison.  But keep on trying to love the unlovable.  Love is a Christian’s distinguishing badge.

And remember this…sometimes we are the “hard to love” ones. We are someone’s sandpaper. We make somebody want to smoke, cuss, or otherwise jump off a cliff when they see us. Extend the same grace as you would want to receive.

“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”  Ephesians 4:32

Oh and so many of you want the “Jesus Loves You (and I’m Trying) shirt I wanted to share the link.