Red.

For those of you that are not religious, do not be put off that the inspiration of this post comes from a church sermon. Just hear me out....

At church today, we discussed the Christmas colors, but we focused on the color red. The pastor focused on this analogy of the red card in soccer. The red card means game over, you're out. As it is the holiday season, there's always going to be that one person you want to red card and kick out. Beyond the holidays, there's always that one person that you want to red card due to a horrible past experience.

But what about this idea - You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

What if the red card was no longer a way to kick people out, but rather a card you pull to show them unconditional love? What if every time you wanted to red card someone, you loved them instead? There's always going to be that one person you want to punch in the face. There's always going to be that person that broke your heart. There's always going to be a list of exceptions that will make you want to hate that person. This hate drives you toward anger and vengeance that ruins everything else about your life.

Let me clarify, I'm not writing this as a way to condescend others for their anger and emotions based on other people's past actions. Rather, I'm writing this in a state of personal reflection and epiphany. I have that one person just like everyone else where often all I feel toward them is anger and a desire to pull the red card. But today after pondering this I realized something more about myself.

You can hurt me all you want, but at the core of me, I will always be that person that who will be there to help you in your time of need. I will never red card you, no matter how angry or hurt I may be. This has been a long process for me to accept this truth about who I am. It's a difficult way to be, as I can often care too much and it backfires. It's also not easy to care. The majority of the time, it is way easier to not care. It's also way easier to be angry. But after a while it becomes an exhausting experience to be angry and to not care.

You can stay angry and not care, but I tend to wonder... What if everyone could let go and drop their red card? What if everyone spent more time loving their enemies than their neighbors? By no means is this an easy task. I speak from personal experience when I say it is far more difficult to care than to not care. I also firmly believe, religious or not, that everyone should drop their red card and love.

This isn't just a holiday thing. This is forever. No one ever deserves to be walked out on. No one deserves a red card. Let the time and effort you spend on loving your neighbors be only a portion of the love you show to those who have wronged you. Let the moments when you want to pull the red card be the moments you show the most love.

Red.