© St. Michael's Anglican E.M.C.

Saint Michael's Anglican

E.M.C.

Rector: The Rev. Canon Henry P. Minton

  From the Canon's Chair

I try never to forget that Jesus died for the one with whom I disagree as well as for me, and that in Jesus the oain of disagreement will be comforted if I am open to it. This can be so hard! But God calls us to show the world what love is by loving our enemies.

How on earth do you do that? How do you love someone who has hurt you and is likely to do so again, someone the mention of whose very name makes you angry? Perhaps it will help to note that we don't have to like the person to show him the love of Jesus; it is a decision not a feeling. In fact the very dislike you are feeling can fofm the basis of your prayer for the one with whom you find yourself at odds; this situation of enmity is hurtful to you and can be offered to a loving God in prayer.

It may be that you and that person will never be on intimate terms. You may rub each other the wrong for the rest of your lives. Not everybody is everybody else'd best friend. But praying for an enemy drains the poison out of your heart, and nobody needs a heart full of poison. The love God plants in your heart may indeed be love from a considerable distance, but there is no heart in which God cannot plant love IF WE ARE WILLING!

                              Canon Pete+