Ever notice how the Bible is chock-full of people we're supposed to love? 

Love your parents, love the poor, love the immigrant, love your neighbor, even love your enemies. But the Bible doesn't talk much about loving ourselves, and what that actually looks like. After all, psychology experts like tell us that we can only love others to the degree that we love ourselves.

This Sunday in church, we are going to hear one of those iconic Biblle passages where Jesus charges us to love those around us, those who are in need, friends, enemies, even those who are ungrateful.

If you're like me, and talk more negatively about yourself than positively - and find certain parts of you, frankly, unlovable, then it makes me wonder if Jesus's strategy is this: when we do the work of loving others, especially those who are difficult to love, we also do the work of loving ourselves.

There is a saying I like that goes like this, who we are and who we become depends, to a large degree, on whom we love.

So when we choose to reach out and love those around us, especially those who are hard to love - we do the work of Jesus - the work that made Jesus who he was.

When we show forgiveness, encouragement, pardon, and good cheer, especially to those who we don't really like, we become the kind of people we want to be, that is, forgivers, encouragers, peacemakers, people who will be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

We all know this is really tough work! In our cancel culture we're much more likely to avoid, ignore, and denigrate, then we are to turn the other cheek. But how is that working out for us? 

Because we know that when we do the more difficult work of trying to love, forgive, and care for those around us, we actually love ourselves - and do us and the world around us a whole lot more good.

Making things better starts by changing the only person we can change - ourselves - so let’s do that by loving others.