Sometimes the Hating Has to Stop

SOMETIMES the hating has to stop. Eventually, having been worn down, and having tried so hard to hold that vitriolic urge to strangle the enemy, we realize it’s done us no good at all.

Sometimes the hating has to stop.

It must stop at our end if it’s to stop at all. And there is no reason why we should propagate it – when the logic of convenience is challenged. Sure, they have wronged us, and the meting out of justice is what they might deserve, but our despising of them is not bringing God’s justice over them one iota closer. Indeed, by our choosing to allow God to execute justice we may well see it in all its glory all the sooner.

Sometimes the hating just has to stop.

It’s worn us down and it’s taken too much of our vitality as we sweated over these weighty matters. Too many sleepless nights where we awoke at 2AM. Too many circular conversations of hateful dispensation. Too many times we have found ourselves with gritted teeth in their presence. Too many times of sheer fear as we anticipate what is about to occur or may never happen.

Sometimes the hating must just stop if we are to live any sort of life reconciled to God. Sometimes these things have to take place before God comes more fully into our world.

Sometimes we just don’t ‘get’ faith until we give ourselves over more completely to the One who desires to transform us. Sometimes it’s the only way we can redeem the blessing that is bound by God’s will toward us – by letting go.

Letting go appears a cliché – an overused concept with signs of wear and tear. But, we may never have even taken it out on a test run. Letting go must be our practice if we are to avail ourselves of the truth – that the fruit of the Spirit is a gift God is desperate to bestow all over us, by our faith and by the trust of faithfulness.

Forgiveness – that art of letting go – must truly start from us!

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Taking personal responsibility to stop the hating and to forgive a transgressor is the redemption of control over, and the blossoming of, a new world! Power comes through us the moment we release this other person for the pitiful one they are. What have they truly got over us? Such a fear is self-fabricated.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.