In 1986, Cheryl and I traveled on a short-term ministry trip to Uganda. We came to a country that had suffered for 15 years under two dictators who had devastated the country. Many may know the name Idi Amin, known for the genocide estimated to be more than a million, but less known is Milton Obote, who is also estimated to have eliminated more than 1 million of his enemies in genocide. Fifteen years of civil war, corruption and genocide had left the country very different from Winston Churchill’s description of Uganda as “the Pearl of Africa.” We passed checkpoints with teenagers holding machine guns, roads that were often barely drivable, and infrastructure that was a mess. But what made it most real, however, was the day we were taken to a shed that was filled with dozens of skulls of the victims of the mass killings.
In February 1977, Bishop Festo Kivengere was part of a group of church leaders who delivered a letter of protest to the dictator, Idi Amin, speaking out against the beatings, arbitrary killings and unexplained disappearances taking place across Uganda at that time. The next day, Festo Kivengere’s friend and leader, Archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered by Idi Amin and Bishop Festo was driven into hiding and then exile.
Soon afterwards, Festo Kivengere published a book entitled I Love Idi Amin. In the book he explained the extraordinary title: ‘The Holy Spirit showed me that I was getting hard in my spirit… so I had to ask for forgiveness from the Lord, and for grace to love President Amin more… this was fresh air for my tired soul. I knew I had seen the Lord and been released: love filled my heart.’
Love is more than a feeling or an emotion. It is a decision about how we treat one another. Jesus was the supreme example of love in the history of the world. He tells us to love God, to love one another (John 13:34–35), to love our neighbour as ourselves and even to love our enemies. He demonstrates all this in his own life through loving everyone (even Judas who betrayed him), and laying down his life for us all in love.
We may not face the same challenges that Bishop Kivengere faced, but we will be challenged to love the people around us, many who will not treat us well. Let's not get hard in our spirits, but instead let grace fill our hearts towards those who have wronged us.
