THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! ―said Luke to Vader upon hearing the truth . . .

So I’ve decided God must have been crazy when He told us we’re supposed to love our neighbors/enemies as ourselves. And to make things even worse, I think what He really meant is that we are supposed to love them unconditionally. You know, like God loves us.

Oh sure, we all say we do that in our most humble, pious voices. We love all of God’s creatures, we continue as if God doesn’t know we are crossing our metaphoric, and sometimes actual, fingers behind our backs.

But let’s break this down, shall we. Love means, well, that’s another blog post but generally speaking we know what it means. Unconditional means, well, unconditional, which means NO conditions. None. Zero. Unconditional love means you are loved for no reason whatsoever. You can’t buy it, sell it, or bargain for it. It doesn’t matter if you’re good or bad or indifferent. Rich, poor, skinny, fat, or too stupid for words. There is nothing you can do to get it and nothing you can do to get rid of it. That is the way God loves us. No matter what anyone says, and by anyone I mean ANYONE, God loves us unconditionally!

Wow! That is pretty, darn awesome! To which I say yes it is!

But . . . really? You want me to love everyone unconditionally, too? Are you kidding me? There are so many people, and by people I mean, not me, who are annoying and moronic and don’t know how to drive! How am I supposed to unconditionally love the idiot who spouts asinine opinions? Or the jerk who hates me because I’m (fill in the blank)? I have a hard enough time unconditionally loving the people I actually love. And except for dogs, I don’t think there are any creatures on the planet who can truly do this!

So where does that leave us? When my kids were little and they’d complain about a classmate, I’d tell them, “You don’t have to like them or be their friend but can’t be mean”. Maybe that’s all God expects from us. You know the whole if- you- can’t- say- something- nice- don’t- say anything- at- all type of thing. Maybe if we can’t unconditional love our neighbors/ enemies/ family, it’s enough to just keep our traps shut, paste on a smile and say “have a nice day”, even if we keep our fingers crossed behind our backs.

I must admit I have great respect and admiration for God that He is able to pull this unconditional loving thing off. Quite frankly, I’m surprised He hasn’t fried us all with lightning bolts. I guess that’s why He’s God and we’re . . . not.

Of course, God’s been around a while and let’s face it, He did design the system. He’s had a lot of time to practice and maybe that’s all we need, too. Practice. I’m not sure I’m up to it. The world has, like, a zillion people. I guess all I can do is unconditionally love just one of you each day and work my way through. It kinda gives me a stomach-ache thinking about it all but as they say, one day at a time, and today is your lucky day because today I pick . . .

. . . You!