Let Go of Your Hate

There is a quote from a tv series I watched years ago that has stayed with me over the years.

“When one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like old leather. And finally, it becomes so familiar that one can’t remember feeling any other way.”

Words from a fictional captain in a pretend world, but still containing a lot of truth

In a world today that has mechanized outrage, it seems that there are those who are continually mad about something. There is always someone who has done wrong, something to rant about, something to frustrate and irk.

Yet we seem very comfortable in it. The anger gives us a sense of high-mindedness. We are righteous in our anger. We care so much that we must bathe ourselves in disgust and outrage toward those in the wrong.

So, we carry on the grudge. We continue to poke the wound. We wear our hate as a cloak around us, thinking it is a regal robe that suits us well as we ride our high horse.

For a moment, can we consider the words we read in 1^st John 2:9, “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.” Hate does not make you right. In fact, a few verses later, he tells us that when we walk in hate, it blinds us from what is right.

Anger leads to hate. Hate blinds us from right and leads us to darkness.

Let go of your hate. It’s not doing you any good.

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