The Second Mile

In marriage, there is sometimes divorce. In other relationships we have less formal but, often equally final, endings to all efforts to communicate and heal something that is broken.


Things reach a point where one or both parties decide that the gulf between them is just too great and that further efforts to connect will only add to the pain.


For many of us, nothing hurts like an injured relationship, particularly with other Christians, and we grow tired of perpetuating something that feels so bad.

To such a situation, I hear Jesus saying, “Don’t give up. Go the second mile and the third. Make every effort to keep the unity or to restore it. Make sure that you have come all the way to the cross and have been willing to die completely there with me. Let go of all bitterness and resentment. Don’t just give up 95% of that cocktail. Be imitators of God and live a life of love. This is what love is: “I lay down my life for you, and you ought to lay down your life for your brothers.”

Recently, I saw some Christ-followers walk back in to a place where they all feared more pain. They heard these kinds of words from Jesus and together they humbled themselves before him and each other.

At the foot of the cross, they listened, and where Satan had sown distrust, God produced understanding. Arms that once held the other back, now reached out to give hugs. It was sweet.

When it feels like we should give up on a relationship, it is time for a mind change.