Let’s admit it: we all have people in our lives we do not like. And there are people who don’t like us. “Liking” is an emotion. We do not have much control over our emotions. We cannot just decide to like somebody. But we can decide to find the good in people we may not like. We can decide to love them in spite of “not liking” them.
In our first reading this Sunday, David has an opportunity to kill King Saul. Saul has led an army of one thousand soldiers out to find David and kill him. (It seems like they REALLY do not like each other!) But David, who respects Saul as “God’s Anointed”, refuses to harm him. He finds the inherent good in Saul.
Each one of us is anointed by God. God has made it that there is inherent good in every one of us. We must look beyond our “dislikes” and find the good, even in our enemies, “Respect” comes from the same word as “spectacles”: We respect, or see, the inherent good of every one.
I have inherited my father’s dislike for “arrogant” people. Arrogance really turns me off. So I must really struggle at times to look beyond the arrogance and find the inherent good that God has placed in arrogant and self-centered people. I pray for them. I try to spend energy and time on them. The better I get to know them, the better able I am to see the good in people I may not like. It is a challenge. It takes effort. I often fail. But I try. Jesus has told me to!
