Love your neighbour as yourself.
A good friend came over a while ago. She was downcast and started sharing all her troubles. I hadn’t planned on spending a lot of time with her.
In my head, this was supposed to be a quick visit to catch up, so I was a bit annoyed that she chose this moment to share her entire life’s story with me. Even more so because this wasn’t the first time. I had heard all those things before, and though I felt sorry for her, I was also just tired of her re-living her past every time.
She was clearly still hurting, but I didn’t have time to deal with it. So, I listened for a while and then offered some Godly advice, shared a Bible verse or two, told her to pray about it and promised I would do the same. Finally, I wrapped it up with a kind “Jesus loves you—and so do I” before gently ushering her out the door so I could get on with my day.
I sound like a terrible friend, right?
What if I told you that “friend” was me?
We are often our own harshest critics. It’s like we all have a Pharisee living inside of us, telling us we’re not good enough, we need to do better, and we’re not worthy of love, salvation, mercy or anything good for that matter.
Understanding the parable of the Good Samaritan (found in Luke 10:25-37), also means recognising that we are all in need and worthy of compassion.
We need to learn to be a Good Samaritan to ourselves before we can effectively be one to others.
After all, the command that inspired the entire parable is:
Love your neighbour as yourself. – Luke 10:27
You cannot love your neighbour as yourself if you don’t know how to love and have compassion for yourself.
Acknowledge the brokenness you carry and extend some compassion to yourself. Jesus desires to meet you in your brokenness.
If that’s something you struggle with, I highly recommend this reading plan, written by Cameron on the YouVersion Bible App.
