There is nothing easy about love. Loving someone is hard work. Do you know why? Because people are not dogs.

If you are a cat lover, forgive the perceived slight. It is not my intention. I just don’t get cats. When they are liking being petted they stick their claws in my leg, what’s up with that? Does it bother them that they like being petted that they push people away? Does liking someone petting them go against the “Cat Code” or something? Anyway…

Gary Larson – The Far Side® 

Dogs, and cats (evidently), are easy to love. People are not. People have opinions and preferences. People often think that what they believe is true needs to be what everyone believes. People perceive things differently than what was intended. People are people.

Because of those differences and challenges we tend to want to be with people that are like us socially, economically, politically, or religiously. The more similarities the less friction. The less friction the better.

Christian love requires that we go out to people, all sorts of people, and love on them. Love them in their differences, no matter what those differences might be. Let me tell you, that is some hard stuff.

It is hard work and there is a lot of friction. Christ-likeness starts in friction. Friction wears away our prejudices and all those other things that get in the way of truly loving someone that is different than those folks we are comfortable being around. We will not grow in the image and likeness of Christ without friction.

I want to throw the stones back, not build a bridge. Love, however, builds a bridge. Love is proved genuine when it meets hatred with love. And, when it is rejected, continues to love despite the cost.

If we are to live the life of Christ, then it must be with the way we love the lovable and the unlovable. Besides, it really doesn’t take much to love the lovable.

Do you struggle with loving unlovable people? I do, but I am getting better at it.