How to Love Unlovable and Unlikable People (Part 1)

I went to a ladies' fellowship at church recently where the speaker shared about love. Apparently Christians are supposed to "just do it." 

You know, LOVE OTHERS. 

While I agreed with the gist of the talk, too many times I wanted to stand up and say, "Loving others is far harder than just doing it." Seriously.

If that weren't case, then why is hypocrisy the #1 thing Christians are known for instead of love? 

When I was in 8th grade, my Sunday School teacher came back from a conference where she learned about different spiritual gifts. She proceeded to tell us ours based on what she saw in our lives. I looked at her quite unimpressed and said, "Hey , if God wants me to know what my spiritual gift is, He'll tell me not you." She smiled to appease me I'm sure.

Needless to say, I didn't care for the spiritual gift I'd been designated as to having. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, so I decided love (the gift of compassion) was the best one to have. After all, didn't Paul of Tarsas write: 

"What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or crashing cymbal." (The Voice)

In my childish determination to obtain the spiritual gift of compassion (love), I took spiritual gift analysis test after test. Got the same what-I-thought-was boring gift every time. 

Being one not easily dismayed, I decided to rig the test to get the desired results so I could say, "Look at that score, baby! I'm a lover not a fighter." Only problem is I couldn't even rig the gift into prominence. Why? Because . . . 

Loving others, truly loving them, is far harder than rigging a test. 

Do you have someone in your life whom you struggle to love?