Besides allusions to the Messiah Complex, there are times when we all do good and yet we’re not recognised. In a flash we can know this is how God might feel.
Rejection was the lot for Jesus, and summarily, the entire Godhead, evermore. Almost ever since life was first breathed into the nostrils of humankind, God’s been on the outer (in certain contexts) because of sin. This Divine Being—who is, in fact, perfect and cannot sin—is sinned against by the most pious of people.
Where This Is At for Us
We can very quickly feel as God would feel—from a human context—when we sow into life and the lives of others a love that comes genuinely from the heart, and then that love is unrequited. This is not romantic love, but the love manifested via acts of service like kindnesses and patience et cetera. The love vested is not returned.
Whenever we do sow lovingly into life and it’s not returned, not only do we feel how God might feel if God were human, we are tempted to withdraw the love and respond to the hurt by hurting back.
There is, then, the agency of the divine majesty of Jesus not to do that; to feel the rejection but to still act in love, despite the hurt. Even better are we to feel love for the persons who’ve hurt us.
This is our everyday challenge: to feel as God might feel if God were human.
Swapping Roles
It’s not beyond us to feel authentically hurt and yet love back with the sincerity of God. For when we see with God’s sight—from that other person’s shoes—we are, at that moment, perfectly in amid of the love God has for them, including all their inadequacies, failings and faults.
Then we’re reminded too, just how emotionally and spiritually frail we are.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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