“I Don’t Like People”

By: Tayliana Debusk

Have you ever said, “I just don’t like people” or “I’m not a people person” or one that I have heard a lot “I like dogs not people.” Well I have news you may not like to hear. As Christians, we don’t get the choice to not like people. We have to love them more than we love our dogs/cats/goldfish/whatever animal you choose. In Mark 12, a man asks Jesus which of the commandments is the most important. In verses 29-30 Jesus replies, “The most important one is this … ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Loving people is our greatest job second to loving God. It is what all of us are called to do.

1 John 4:20 says, “If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.” Yikes. I mean that’s a little intense, right? Maybe, but it’s true. How can we love the Creator, but not the ones He made in His image? Now I know you are all like, “But, Tay, you don't know what they’ve or what they’ve done or who I have to put up with. You don’t know how much they have hurt me or someone I love,” and I probably don’t. But what I do know is that this verse comes with no “if’s” or “but’s.” Loving people can be hard and inconvenient.

we need to recognize that we are called to love the unlovable. people don’t need you when it’s convenient. People need you when they need you.

I have a friend named Alisen who gets this. I have called her in the middle of the night when I was upset over things that ended up not being a big deal, but she answered. If it was a big deal to me, it was a big deal to her too. I have left my house in the middle of the night to sleep next to her when she was alone and missing her family. Why is it always the middle of the night? Because that was when we needed each other. Not because it was convenient.

Unfortunately, relationships aren’t always going to be two-sided. People will need you more than you need them. Shoot, you may think you’re better off without them if you’re being honest! For me, that friend is a girl I met a few years back. She’s one of those people that will ask for advice just to turn around and do whatever she wants. For this reason a lot of people, good christian people, gave up on her. For whatever reason God chose me to be the one that didn’t. I wish I could tell you now she has pulled through and what not, but she hasn’t, and that’s okay. I’m not choosing to love her in order to change he, I love her because of who she is. If she never changes I will never stop loving her. She can call me in the middle of the movie, and I will never stop answering my phone. In the end you may realize you need these people more than you think you do.

Then there are the ones who have hurt you. The hardest ones to love. They don’t deserve it, but we don't deserve the love of God, and He gives it unconditionally. We are called to do the same. If they are harmful to you it is good and wise to love them from a distance, but for the ones who aren’t, we are still called to love them. Forget what Twitter has told you to do. I’m sure you have read, “No fake friends in 2020” a thousand times, but be the one who stays no matter what. Love without conditions. Don’t be afraid to get hurt. In the book Scary Close by Donald Miller, he writes:

“But love doesn’t control, and I suppose that’s why it’s the ultimate risk. In the end, we have to hope the person we’re giving our heart to won’t break it, and be willing to forgive them when they do, even as they will forgive us.”

I leave you with this last verse. John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” People won’t know you love Jesus by how much you go to church, or read your bible or pray. They will know by how much you love.