Love Your Enemies

In a mind-blowing, Twilight Zone-like couple of minutes last Tuesday, my nemesis at work ended our long-running, almost legendary feud with an extended hand and the words, "Life's too short. Let's put this behind us." To which I replied (with my jaw on the floor) "For real?"

He said, "Yeah."

Me: "You're serious."

Him: "Yeah, sometimes it's just easier to let stuff go." Then he started to right some wrongs and really fix things that have been messed up for, well, all together, about a year. I still have a hard time believing it. This feud of ours had gotten so out of hand that I had begun to justify my part like Samson when he said, "This time I will be blameless when I do the Philistines harm." I had often convinced myself that my co-worker had it coming because of what he did or said so really, who could hold it against me? I was only doing what's right (I told myself), to teach him that he can't get away with that. When I'd pray for my enemy, it was that somehow he'd get his head right and see things my way. Now that he's not so much my enemy, I find it easier to pray for him genuinely. That's messed up, ain't it? Anyway, I told him that it was pretty cool the way that he had ended it and that that took a lot of stones. He just laughed.

Someone who had obviously not heard that our feud was over told me that he had heard through the grape-vine that I was going to kick the other guy's [butt]. I wasn't planning on doing that and I don't know who told him that, but I said "No, it turns out he kicked mine if he's for real."
I had tried ending it before but it just never worked out. This time he took the high road and although I still haven't hopped on his bandwagon, I don't want to pass up this opportunity if he really is serious. It feels like someone opened up a window and let a fresh breeze blow through.