Love is an invitation, hatred a rejection.
I’ve been concerned about a friend recently. This is someone for whom I have an immense respect, and an abiding concern for.
But over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a troubling progression in her countenance that has left me saddened and dismayed. I wish there was something I could do to change her direction, but I can’t seem to find the right way to go about it.
She is changing from a person of love, into a creature of hate.
It’s her way of responding to a situation in which she finds herself. This is not of her making, or even of her control. Truly, the situation lies within her sphere of concern, but not within her sphere of influence or control.
Frustrated, angry and I suspect running out of patience, she has chosen to become hardened, critical, resentful and combative.
Although I see her still performing good works, her energy has changed, and she now projects an aura of aggression, contention and superiority.
In short, she is choosing hatred, because it’s easier to hate those whom she considers her enemies, but I fear she is actually prolonging the very situation that has created the nightmare she now feels trapped in.
I titled this post very specifically, because I feel we all need to understand this at a greater level; I know I do.
When you offer love to those who you esteem to be your enemies, then you invite them into an interaction that may eventually turn into a dialogue.
In short, love is an invitation to grow and find a truth together, regardless of your differences.
And I understand that it is hard to offer love to those who have treated you or others badly, but you have to ask yourselves, what is the alternative?
If you return hatred with hatred, then you reject not only the person, but the possibility that you could find a way to co-exist together.
Instead of engaging in a relationship which could change the world, we choose to hate, and in so doing harden a conflict which may last generations, until finally, out of desperation born of all the hatred that has preceded, someone, somewhere, is going to sit down and have to do what was inevitable from the start.
They are going to have to engage in a dialogue, and find a way to live together.
I beg all of us today, including myself, to turn from hatred, division, anger and contention, and try to find a balance. If half of the world is your enemy, then you can’t ignore, deride or destroy them.
We have to find a way to live in peace, and it begins with us choosing love over hate.
We have to be the calm in the storm.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings