Things started off with a bang when during our first meeting he accused me of being a member of what he called a breakaway and non-conformist society (the Mormon Church). And that by definition, I was unfit to lead the company in it’s online marketing efforts. I was furious!

Throughout the first year, my enemy would take every opportunity he could to make me and my staff look bad. In fact, he would often go out of his way to damage my career and make me look incompetent to the senior management.

My enemy sought every opportunity he could to hurt me not only professionally but personally and spitefully used me to build his own career. I remember the night so well when I felt I could take no more and I broke down and cried. I remembered saying out loud that I wished he were dead and I no longer cared who knew it. My anger was complete and I was entirely overcome and eaten up by it. It seemed every waking hour and all my strength was usurped in rumination and suffering.

On Sunday afternoon that fateful weekend, I was sitting in church half listening to the speaker and half planning my next move at the office war, when I heard the speaker say, “Who is my brother?” I knew in an instant what the next words would be and I was right. “A certain man went down from Galilee…” and the story of the good Samaritan was told.

Try as I might, as I listened to the story I couldn’t remove from my mind that my enemy was indeed my brother. It was as if the speaker had prepared her remarks just for me. The thought of my enemy as my brother was like drinking poison and chewing on barbed wire. Yet, I knew it was true and I couldn’t erase it from my mind.

The speaker then drove what felt like a dagger through my heart as she quoted Matthew 5:44, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”

The forces of good and evil battled in my soul until that evening when I knelt at my bed and prayed for my enemy amidst many tears. I felt like a hypocrite and a trader to my own soul. But the longer I prayed the better I seemed to feel. I remembered asking the Lord for his forgiveness and to help me love my enemy.

From that night onward, the office war was less severe and through continual prayer even the actions of my one time enemy had less and less effect until the day when I was completely unaffected by his actions and I truly felt sorry for him and even loved him in a professional sort of way.

I found I could be kind in return to his vindictive actions and I also was able to pray in honest and sincere prayer for him and his career. While we never became good friends, we did in time work together and were able to have a professional relationship. But the day I realized the power of love and forgiveness was when I was summoned to the VP’s office late in the day one afternoon just before I left the company for a better position with another firm. A little nervous, I entered the VP’s office when I was told that he had a compliment to pass on to me. The VP had just gotten off the phone with my one time enemy who told him that he thought I was visionary and brilliant. Two complements every marketer loves to hear.

After so many months of expressing my love for him through acts of kindness and restraint, he was now in his own way expressing his love for me, something that was even beyond impossible just several months before.

I know in my life I tend to be much to thrifty with my love, seeking to spend it only where I’ll get the best return. But when we freely and liberally give our love to all, we will find that our love will come back to us sweeter, more powerful and more profound than when we gave it.