On Having the Right Enemies

We are know much about our­selves by our friends but most about our­selves by our ene­mies. I am not say­ing that we are to inten­tion­ally cre­ate ene­mies. I am say­ing that how we live and what we believe will attract or repulse peo­ple. The famous psy­chol­o­gist, Carl Jung, was right: all of life is pro­jec­tion. Or, as Jesus said it: “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The thoughts of our hearts radi­ate out­ward and attract or repel peo­ple. Jesus attracted the com­mon per­son, includ­ing tax col­lec­tors and pros­ti­tutes. He attracted the bro­ken and the despised. He radi­ated some “vibe” in which they found hope. That same com­pas­sion­ate vibe or spirit repulsed many — mostly cer­tain reli­gious lead­ers, polit­i­cal con­trollers, and the truly evil (will­ing to kill the inno­cent for their own secu­rity).
You can mea­sure your spir­i­tu­al­ity by your ene­mies. Jesus said, “If they hated me, they will hate you.” By car­ry­ing the same “vibe” of the Lord, you can expect to have some ene­mies. Being a Chris­t­ian does not mean that you will be uni­ver­sally loved — quite the oppo­site. It means that you will turn some peo­ple off to the point that they would like to kill you. Of course those actions speak vol­umes about your “ene­mies” too. God has never been uni­ver­sally pop­u­lar. There is a cer­tain pride or hubris in mankind that often cre­ates its own god com­plex. Out of that com­plex comes polit­i­cally moti­vated geno­cide and mass oppres­sion. Mankind would rather be its own god than to serve One…with dis­as­trous results. The worst evil is the use of reli­gion for sec­u­lar pur­poses.
I have noticed that each of the cur­rent pres­i­den­tial and vice pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates have unique ene­mies. I iden­tify with hav­ing some of those ene­mies, but I do not iden­tify with being an enemy to any of them. I just can­not bring myself to hate any of the can­di­dates — no mat­ter how deluded my ego thinks some of them might be. How­ever, I would be proud to have some of their ene­mies. I have a feel­ing that if Jesus Christ were run­ning for office, he would have a sur­pris­ingly wide range of ene­mies. Let’s face it: most peo­ple iden­tify more with power and promises than they do with sac­ri­fi­cial love.
To be hated with­out hat­ing is the real mea­sure of the noble soul. To sac­ri­fice for the suc­cess of oth­ers, rather than per­sonal gain, is the mark of the godly. Great things are not accom­plished in neu­tral­ity. All pos­i­tive actions have their cor­re­spond­ing neg­a­tives. I hope to have the same ene­mies as Jesus and for the same rea­sons. That would truly be a wor­thy goal.