"The gift our enemy brings us (is) to see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way. Our friends are not good sources of information about these things; they often overlook or ignore these parts of us. The enemy is not merely a hurdle to be leapt on the way to God. The enemy can be the way to God. We cannot come to terms with our shadow except through our enemy, for we have no better access to those unacceptable parts of ourselves that need redeeming than through the mirror that our enemies hold up to us. This, then, is another, more intimate reason for loving our enemies: we are dependent on our enemies for our very individuation. We cannot be whole people without them.
How wonderfully humiliating: we not only may have a role in transforming our enemies, but our enemies can have a role in transforming us!...
In the final analysis, loving enemies is a way of living in expectation of miracles....If God can forgive, redeem, and transform me, I must also believe that God can work such wonders with anyone. Love of enemies is seeing one's oppressors through the prism of the reign of God--not only as they now are but also as they can become: transformed by the power of God."
- Walter Wink, The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millenium (New York: Galilee, 1998. pp. 170-71, 178-79).
I hope you find these words as thought-provoking and spiritually challenging as I do. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Wishing you a blessed week, Manda
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