I’ve enjoyed telling the stories of growing up with my brother the past couple of weeks. For years, for years, my brother tortured me as a kid.

When he would pick me up from school when I was in junior high, and everybody watching as I made my way to the door of his car, he would speed up just enough so I couldn’t open the door.

I would quickly run to try to open the door and he would slow down for me, only to speed up again just as I was about to open the door.

The whole school would laugh at me as I, all red-faced, tried to get in the car and get home so I could hide somewhere.

Now, this is only a small part of my life growing up with my brother.

And now I can have my revenge, by telling stories about him from this pulpit and over the radio.

Now, not only did my brother have to pick me up from school, but he also took me to school.

This is not a pleasant experience because you see, my brother was in love, really in love or something, and what that meant was, he had to be at his school by 7:30 in the morning so he could sit and smile with his girlfriend.

Well, that may not seem so bad, except when you think that in order for him to be at his school by 7:30 in the morning meant that I was as my school by 7:15 which meant we had to leave home by 6:55 AM, which meant I had to be up at or before 6 AM!!!

For those of you who are doing the math, it meant that I left home an hour and 20 minutes before school started. I stood outside in the cold and heat, for an hour before the school doors opened.

How I used to pray that he would break up with his girlfriend, so I could get some sleep and so I wouldn’t freeze to death waiting outside.

God has a sense of humor, and he answered my prayer.

They broke up. I was so happy! I was able to sleep until 7:00! I would only have to wait outside for just a few minutes! Yes! Thank you God!

Well that first morning, I piled in the car, revived and energized after having a whole other hour of sleep. And my brother fell in the car, looking pitiful, knowing he would have to see his ex-girlfriend for the first time and all.

And he reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a cassette tape. He cut the car on and placed the tape into the tape deck and pressed play.

And word for word, my brother sang along to the saddest heartbreak song ever written.

He belted out with a cry that curled your spine as he sang, "Every rose has it’s thorn, just like every night, has a dawn, just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn!"

Verse after verse he sang, chorus after chorus he belted out. And when the song was over, he rewound the tape and started singing with it all over again. 7 times on that 20 minute ride, I heard ‘every rose has its thorn’.

7 times on the 20 minute ride back home from school, I heard ‘every rose has it’s thorn’. For two months I went through this, that’s 40 days, two times a day, 7 times each way, that’s 560 times he sang that cotton pickin song on the way to school.

I told you God has a sense of humor. And I learned a lesson from all this, love is never easy……not because of what my brother went through, but because of what I had to go through.

Oh, and by the way, even today, I can still sing every word to that song.

Having to listen to that song was my definition of tough love. Until the next year.

Our dog was sick, her kidneys were failing, she had arthritis in every single joint, she was deaf and was going blind.

She was such a sweet dog, her name was Polly. She would always let us know when someone was pulling in the driveway or when I dear was in the garden.

And we always knew when a storm was coming because she would try to tear down the door and the hint of thunder.

She was such a good dog. But she was suffering.

And one morning, eating breakfast, my father told us he was taking Polly to the vet today.

"really? Is she getting more medicine? She’s not going to like that" I said between mouthfuls of Cheerio’s.

"No, she’s not getting more medicine today, in fact she won’t have to take any more medicine ever again."

"How’s that?" I asked.

"Because they’re going to put her to sleep today"

"WHAT?!, you can’t do that, they can’t kill Polly, no, I won’t let you!" I said pushing my Cheerio’s away, no longer hungry.

My dad took me to the window that looked out into the garage and pointed to poor old Polly. She was staggering and in pain, her eyes told of agony.

And with tears in my eyes, I nodded and walked away.

Love is never easy. Love is most certainly never easy.

In fact, we’ve written and sing more songs, we write and read more books, and we make and watch more plays, movies, and television shows about the struggle of love more than any other theme.

We know that breaking up is hard to do.

We know what it’s like to be Sleepless in Seattle.

We know the pain that Your Cheatin Heart has caused.

And we know that Every Rose has it’s thorn.

LOVE is never easy.

Be it loving our family, loving our spouse, loving our animals, or even loving ourselves, it is never a walk in the park.

Love is hard because it means going against what comes natural to us.

Love is hard because it means having to deny the thing we cherish and prize more than anything else in the world – ourselves.

To really and truly love someone or something means to put their needs, their wants, their dreams ahead of our own.

To really and truly love someone means to always trust, always hope, and always persevere.

To really and truly love means to do and be everything that doesn’t come natural to us: patient, understanding, humble, kind, slow to anger.

Love is never easy!

So when Jesus talks about the love of God, we listen with listen with open hearts, a love that forgives, a love that is patient, is understanding;

A love that ALWAYS trusts, that ALWAYS hopes, and will ALWAYS persevere.

And our hearts are warmed and rejoice with thankful hearts and we tell everybody who will listen about the wonderful love of God, about the never-ending love of God, about the free and abundant love that comes from our God.

But when Jesus talks about the love that we are to show to our enemies, to those who hate our very name, and hurts us, we become silent.

We don’t shout it from the roof tops and rejoice with thankful hearts. We aren’t filled with warmth and we listen not with attentive hearts but with a forgetful ear.

How can we love those who hate us? How can we love those who know not what love is?

How can we love our enemies when we find that loving our families, friends, and self is so hard to handle, so hard to keep, and too hard to let go?

We know the struggles that we endure every single day that involve love.

It takes a lifetime to work on a marriage.

It takes a lifetime to understand friendship.

It takes a lifetime to fully appreciate who we are individually.

So how many lifetimes will we need to love those who persecute us? How long will it take before we care for our enemies?

Let’s find out!

God knows we can never live up to the standard of love that he has set for us, but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try!

Let’s find out how long it would take us to finally love our enemies and care for those who hate us, by starting right now.

Let’s begin today to put the needs of others before our own.

Let’s start right now, working to trust those who oppose us, let’s start right now, always keeping the hope of universal love living between anybody and everybody, let’s start right now, and with the grace of God, we will persevere.

We can love our enemies the same way we love our parents, our children, our spouses, friends, and yes, even ourselves – by taking one day at a time.

We can love our enemies by taking one day at a time, caring for them, one person at a time.

We can accept the bad days as they come and push on to the good days just like we do in our homes.

Let’s start by talking, let’s start by praying, for ourselves and for our enemies.

Before long, we’ll find common ground and achieve understanding.

Before long, after taking each day as it comes, we look across the way and no longer see an enemy, but we’ll look to embrace a friend.

Before long, they’ll no longer be anger, no longer hate.

But only trust, hope, and perseverance.

There’ll be love.

Love is never easy. Just ask a married couple. Just ask the mother of boys.

Love is never easy. Just ask the boy looking for comfort in the radio. Just ask the child who had to say goodbye to their dog.

Love is never easy. But it’s worth fighting for. Love is worth working for and working towards.

Love is worth the sacrifice that is required.

We’ve seen it happen. No one or nothing has been persecuted and hated more than God.

Nothing or no one has been accused more, ignored more, or doubted more. No one has ever had more enemies.

But God loved. God loves. God will love. And this ever-present love from God is available to us because of a sacrifice.

Nothing can overcome love. Not even hate. Not even anger. Not even our enemies and those who persecute us.

Love conquers all. Love will conquer all.

But it will take all of us all the time, working, fighting, striving for love, between all and within all…

One day at a time.

Love may not be easy, but it’s not impossible.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.