Daily Prayer: Learning to Love Like Jesus (Even When People Are a Lot)
Daily Prayer: Learning to Love Like Jesus (Even When People Are a Lot)
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
— John 13:34
Here's something nobody tells you about loving people the way Jesus did: He was surrounded by them. All. The. Time.
No solo lunches. No decompression drives home. Just twelve grown men, constant crowds, and zero personal space. And He still loved them. Fully. Sacrificially. Without keeping score.
I think about that on a Tuesday afternoon in July, when the work inbox is full, the house is warm in that heavy summer way, and someone needs something from me again — and I am already running on the fumes of last week's patience.
A Command, Not a Suggestion
Jesus doesn't say, "Here's a nice idea: maybe try loving people when you feel up to it." He says command. New command. Like it's going on the list right next to the big ones.
That word has always stopped me a little. Commands feel weighty. They don't leave a lot of room for "but you don't know what they said in that group chat."
And yet, the command comes wrapped in something that makes it both harder and somehow more doable: As I have loved you.
He's not asking us to conjure up love from nowhere. He's pointing to a model. A standard. A living example of what this is supposed to look like.
Which is either very encouraging or very convicting, depending on the day.
The People Right In Front of Me
Most days, loving "one another" doesn't look like a grand gesture. It looks like my husband asking me something when I'm mid-thought and choosing to actually look up from my phone instead of answering from behind it.
It looks like my adult kid — who is fully grown and still somehow needs things from me in ways I didn't expect — and me figuring out what love looks like in this new chapter of us. Less managing. More trusting. More letting go while staying present. That's its own kind of work.
It looks like a coworker who is difficult in a very specific, consistent way, and me deciding — again, for the fifth time this month — that I'm going to respond with grace instead of a well-crafted cold shoulder.
None of this is dramatic. All of it costs something.
The Standard Is Uncomfortably High
Jesus loved people who fell asleep on Him in His darkest hour. He loved the one He knew would betray Him. He washed feet at a dinner table knowing what was coming next.
That's the standard He pointed to when He said as I have loved you.
I'll be honest — I read that and my first thought is usually okay but realistically.
But I don't think He was being unrealistic. I think He was being honest about what love actually requires. And then He gave us His Spirit to help us do it, because He knew we couldn't just white-knuckle our way to Christlike love on our own steam.
That part is important. We're not doing this alone.
What It Looks Like on an Ordinary Day
It's the middle of the week. Summer is in full swing. The days are long and full and sometimes I get to the evening and realize I've been running on task-mode since morning, efficient but not particularly warm.
And this verse kind of taps me on the shoulder and says: Hey. People. Remember them?
Not people as a category. The specific ones. The ones in my house, my inbox, my life.
I don't think loving them well means I have to be an extrovert or have endless emotional bandwidth. I think it means I pay attention. I show up. I choose kindness when being curt would be easier. I forgive faster than feels fair. I stay when I'd rather retreat.
That's it. That's the whole thing, most days.
A Prayer for Today
Lord, honestly? Loving people is harder than I think it should be. And I know that says something about me, not them.
Help me love the people right in front of me today — not in some abstract, general way, but actually. Specifically. The ones who are easy and the ones who are not.
Remind me today that You loved me when I was not easy. When I was distracted and selfish and slow to get it. You loved me anyway, fully, without making me feel like a burden.
That's the kind of love I want to give. I can't do it on my own, so I'm asking You to do it through me. Pick up my slack. Soften my edges. Keep me from going cold when things get hard.
Thank You for making this a command and not just a feeling — because feelings come and go, and I need something sturdier than a mood to stand on.
Amen.
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