Overcoming Hate

Hate was just a word when I was younger.  A way of expressing something or someone I didn’t like.  Then something happened in my early 30’s and I learned what it was like to really hate someone.  My whole body felt it.  I was unable to think clearly when the hate would build up inside me.  The inside of my head seemed to expand and put pressure on my skull and my whole body went on alert. 

This feeling of Hate lasted about 6 months before I learned what it was doing to me.  You may laugh when you hear how I turned my feeling of hate off.  I was watching Oprah.  I truly believe God knew I needed her story that day.  She explained how she hated someone and seeing them on the street one day just turned her whole body into the feeling about how much she hated that person.  Oprah saw them laughing as they walked along with another person and was not caring that she hated them.  Possibly not even knowing she hated them.  That is when she realized that all that hate was only causing herself pain. 

I learned in church at a young age that hate was wrong, but I never knew what hate truly was before. Now, it made total sense to me.  If the person I hated came into my mind my whole mood changed and my body would tense, but that person had no idea I was even thinking about them. 

From then on, I refocused that hate into a more appropriate feeling.  It is more of a disappointment in what that person did and not the person. What they did or said may not be what I expected of them, so their action was disappointing to me.  I can verbally let them know that was disappointing to me.  Then it is on them if they care enough to change their action. If not, I need to accept that is the persons choice and it is not going to affect me emotionally and physically.  I can continue to let them in my life or choose to not be around them as much and focus on people that have positive energy to improve my life. 

1 John 2:9-11 ESV

9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.