From Pastor Ryan...

Today's Daily Lesson:  "Do I have to love everybody?"

My 4-year-old Bo has come into my bathroom and has met me as I'm getting out of the shower. He is wearing a pair of my cowboy boots from when I was a child and cowboy hat that is about 5 sizes too large.  The lasso I tied for him with a large piece of string yesterday hangs from one front pocket along with a long blow horn in the other.

I'm sure he's pretending the blow horn is his gun.

I step out of the shower, grab my towel and wrap it around me.

"Yes," I say, "we're supposed to love everybody."

I walk out of the bathroom and towards the utility room to grab some clothes. Bo trails me.  Halfway across the living room Bo asks another question, which it becomes obvious was in fact his real question.  "What about bad guys? Do I have to love them?"

"Yes, I think we've got to love bad guys too."

Bo stops behind me as I keep going into the utility room, grab a shirt, and walk back out.

He's lying now flat on the floor, his cowboy hat propped next to his shoulder

and the scuffed toes of his boots pointing straight into the air.

He grimaces and then in a 4-year-old whine says,

"I don't want to love bad guys.  Why do I have to love bad guys?"

I stand over him, my shirt on now but still in my towel.

"Well, we want to be like God and God loves everybody," I say.

"Does God love bad guys?" Bo asks.

"Yes, God loves everybody -- even bad guys," I say, and then borrow a line from Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. "God brought the sun up on the bad guys' houses this morning

just like God brought the sun up on the houses of the good guys.

Bo thinks about that a moment. I remain standing over him.

"Well, what about police officers," he asks, "do they have to love bad guys?"

I shift on my feet and my lips purse. This is getting serious.

"Well," I say, "they're supposed to."

"But don't police officers kill bad guys?" Bo asks.

"Well, sometimes they do have to take the lives bad guys when they feel it is necessary.  But that's not ever what we want to happen.  Do you know what we want to happen?"

I don't wait for his response but keep talking. "What we really want to see happen is for the police officers and all the other good guys to love the bad guys --

and to love them so much that they actually become good guys also.

It doesn't always work like that; but that's our hope."

Bo is quiet now. He's still flat on his back with his toes in the air.  

He spins his cowboy hat around his wrist.

"What do you think about that?" I ask,

"Do you think you could love a bad guy so much that he turns good?"

There's a thoughtful look on Bo's face as turns his hat a time or two more.

"Maybe," he says "-- when I'm a teenager."

"Maybe when you're a teenager," I echo back. "When you're ready. You've still got time."

I turn and walk away, back towards my bedroom.

And along the way I think to myself that I hope I've still got some time also.