How to Show Wild Love

During this quarantine, many of us are stuck in very close proximity with people who we probably don’t get along the best with. However, when Jesus said love your enemy, he gave no fine print clarification that said “unless you are stuck with them during a quarantine.”  It’s easy and feels good to lash out at those who are mean to us. Not reacting and just continuing on your way is pretty hard, but it’s really hard to turn around and show love in response. Sometimes it feels impossible to be nice back to them. So, I’d like to encourage you by sharing in this post a few things that will help you show wild love.

I call this wild love because it’s a love foreign to this world. Just as how wild animals act with complete disregard to how our society says they should act. We should love as God calls us to love and show complete disregard to how our society says we should love.

A Personal Story

One of my friends was about to leave for college. I knew it would be a while until I got to see her again, so I was really excited to go to her going-away party. When I asked my dad if I could use the car to go and he said no, all of this excitement quickly turned into anger. He continued on to say that since I was going to be home that evening, then I should help him pack for his camping trip. This made me livid. Not only was he taking something away for no reason, he essentially wanted to punish me by making me help him.

As he walked away, my mind swam with hateful thoughts. As I cooled off some, I told myself, “God tells me to love him, so I won’t do anything mean, but no matter how hard he pushes I will never help him.” This sort of round-about revenge felt good. He wouldn’t even know how angry I was, but I’d still get the satisfaction of lashing out at him in an odd sort of way.

Just then, the Holy Spirit spoke to me: “Philip, yes, you may have a good reason to be angry, but this is a really strategic opportunity to show him wild love. Loving him in this moment will mean far more to him than if you go far out of your way to love him at some other time.” I can’t remember whether or not he ended up needing my help, but this lesson stuck with me.

Recognize the Real Enemy

Sometimes it’s easy to consider others our enemy, but this isn’t true. Yes, perhaps my dad wasn’t being fair in this situation, but God still loves him. We all do bad things because of the curse of sin.

Think about this, when people fight, Satan wins. He’s all about getting us to attack each other. When you don’t lash out in response, but lash out in your heart, Satan still wins. That person who has or is still wronging you is someone who needs God’s love. They are misled and deceived by our true enemy to do the things they are doing. They are trapped in an emotional and spiritual prison.

When you love these people in response, you help them escape this prison. If you simply don’t respond, you might not be sinning, but you aren’t helping them escape their bondage. Focus on their helpless state under Satan’s feet, and use this sympathy to help them up and into a true life.

Focus on the Long Run

If you lash out, or if you simply don’t respond, you are letting the situation continue. They will come back and wrong you again, and you’ll be back in the same situation. If you do lash out, you are only making the situation worse, and the next time you’ll only be more mad. Not responding may be better than lashing out, but it’s only a delay tactic.

However, if you respond with wild love, you disarm the whole situation. The next time the situation comes up it will likely be less heated, and it will also be easier for you to respond by showing wild love.

There’s three main reasons why people treat others wrongfully. 1) A person might be mean to you without knowing they are being mean at all. 2) A person will be mean out of the overflow of their own life. They might be someone being mean to them, or they might have a terrible life themselves and are just releasing their anger on you. or 3) A person will be mean because they like hurting you. We’ve all experienced it. When we are mad at someone, hurting them just feels so good.

With all three of these situations, showing them wild love disarms the hatred. In the first case, your love can easily show them how mean they are being and help them to change. If it’s the second case, your love can easily help them see that they are hurting you. They may also recognize that you aren’t the cause of their frustration. In the third case, by showing them love you remove every ounce of satisfaction they might’ve felt by being mean to you. In which case, they’ll be less inclined to try and seek that satisfaction again.

Critical Opportunities to Show Wild Love

There’s also a fourth reason why someone might lash out at you, and that’s because you’ve lashed out at them. Maybe it was a while in the past. In which case you should apologize for any hateful things you’ve thought or said and fight to show them wild love

If you are forced to live with someone right now who who’s rubbing you the wrong way, you have the perfect opportunity to show wild love. Loving others when it’s easy doesn’t really say much. The world does this all the time. However, loving someone when it’s hard can make a big difference. This shocks people. It makes them wonder how you have the strength to show love even when you don’t want to.

This can shows them that you are different than most. Hopefully this realization will lead them back to the fact that Christ has changed you. Whether it does or doesn’t, they will recognize that they need to be nicer, and appreciate what you did.

Every way you look at it, showing this wild love is good. The only problem is that it’s hard. So, let’s ask God for the strength, and live wilder.

If you liked this post, you should check out my post Four Ways to Share the Gospel During a Quarantine

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