Love YOUR enemies.

Alright so its been awhile. I'm back from Serbia/Montenegro. But I'll update you all on that in my next post (hopefully just a few minute after this one).

First I want to share quick little life lesson I learned this month. It goes something like this...

Over the summer while I was gone the phone system at the Great Plains regional office died a horrible death. At the same time we got a new Telco/ISP (phone service and Internet service provider). Since I wasn't in the U.S. when that happened the setup was all wrong to work with our network. I've probably already lost some of you so I'll avoid the technical mumbo jumbo. Summed up Jon had a minor headache on his hands when he returned to the office in August.

Not to worry just have the Telco provider make a few minor settings changes on their end and we'd be up and running in no time. And this was also a prime opportunity to setup a sweet new phone system based off of an Asterisk style pbx (more tech mumbo jumbo - just believe me when I say its sweet). Starting off in August I was actually pumped about the chaos because it meant I could finally put in place some technology that would give the office some solid footing for the future.

Then came the seeming un-ending weeks of struggling to get the Telco to make the simple requests for our network. And some difficulties in purchasing the pbx (tried several vendors before finding the right one). After calling and emailing people at the Telco everyday for 3 or more weeks I finally talked to the right person and the changes were made in around 20 minutes. It was insane. By that time my stress level had gotten through the roof and as my coworkers can attest I had started to develop a bit of an anger problem.

Then a few days after everything came together I was driving in my car still praying for God to reduce my stress level (it took awhile for me to calm back down). That was when I heard the Lord's rebuke. He brought to mind the passage about loving your enemies. And showed me how it doesn't mean what I'd thought it meant.

It doesn't just mean to love people who hate you. It means that too but it also means to love those who I chose as My enemies. It can be easy to 'love' someone who hates you - that kind of loving your enemy can come from a sense of being morally superior. But when the person you despise has no idea how much you have made them your enemy and THEY become who you 'love and pray for' that's another thing altogether.

Needless to say my stress and anger finally started to dissipate when I began to pray for everyone I had interacted with at the Telco.

Who else do I pick as my enemy that I need to begin praying for???