Spiritual Friendship, Loving those that May Annoy You

I've been meaning to post this all week, but admittedly I am sometimes a little lazy.  Last Sunday, Trujillo had this huge parade, complete with beauty queens and baton twirlers.  We knew it was going to be a little crazy through the day, but we didn't think that it would make us miss church.  After trying to find a comi (these cars that will take as many people as possible and run one route for just a sole!) we gave up and attempted a taxi.  After another fifteen minutes of going the wrong way because of the streets blocked off for the parade, we really gave up.  Sarah, Ham, and I came back to the apartment to listen to a sermon by Tim Keller (Kellar???) and I must say it almost made me glad that I missed church.  The sermon was about spiritual friendships, taken from Acts 20 where Paul is getting ready to go to Jerusalem.  

Keller talks about how the gospel creates and causes us to spiritual friendships.  That they are needed, discovered, made, and eternal.  One of the most interesting things he said was that "the essence of friendship is to kneel before the same thing."  He talked about how seemingly very different Christians, who would otherwise never, ever, hang out, have more in common than others of their same "social group".  What that said to me was that I should be able to hang out and love another person despite the fact that for whatever reason they get on my nerves.    Keller went on to say that "When you start to fall in love with Jesus, friendship begins" that friendship without God at the center of it, it always selfish, always self-seeking.  

I've been thinking about this all week, of course constantly seeing myself as the victim of other Christians who I think aren't seeing this concept and who aren't treating me the way I think they should.  But of course God smacked me in the face a few dozen times to remind me of how I have treated others in the past, and how in the relationships I think are not right, I have failed in putting forth effort to make them right, or even getting to know the other person.  I often times ponder the verse "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you" but I had a revelation recently.  I don't have that many enemies, people pursuing me for my life, but there are people who just grate on my nerves.  I think that God would tell me to love those who annoy me, and pray for those who I get irritated with.  I should be seeking to see who I have wronged, and know that just because my personality clashes with another does not mean that I have the right to ignore or mistreat them.  If they are my brother's or sister's in Christ then I should be loving them as a brother or sister in Christ, if they are not a Christian then I should be loving them as one of God's created beings!  Made in His image!  Anything less is just down right sin.  And I am the worst.