Developing Emotional Health and Practicing Active Love

Could you forgive someone if you knew they murdered your entire family? It sounds far-fetched. But this is the question posed in As We Forgive - a documentary about the tragedies of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the stories of two women as they came face to face with the men who killed their families. It provoked the question - Would I be capable of forgiving my enemies like this? This is the center point of Jesus' most shocking, counterintuitive teaching - "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44) In saying this, Jesus set a new benchmark for love. He turned the new world order upside down. For Christians, the key distinguishing mark of spiritual maturity is the way we love our enemies. In today's podcast, I walk through the 3 reasons our love often stops short of this measurement, and what we can do to deepen the way we love others. (Hint, this is all a precursor for where we'll be headed over the next several weeks of the podcast!)