This Question came from Rungu.

This is a question that came from Rungu. The picture has nothing to do with the answer, I am just playing with putting pictures on the blog. So far I seem to just know enough to get myself in trouble

Can one tell of the Love of God and still harbor hate and resentment toward others in their heart? Can we love God and still hate our own enemies? My answer is Yes. However…….

The trouble lies in letting it go at that. Forgiving someone is a process. Sometimes that process is short lived and we can forgive someone, or some entity (like a nation or group of people or institution) and sometimes, that process is a life long endeavor. The trouble with hatred or resentment is that the main victim is yourself. Fredrick Buechner in his book “Wishful Thinking” describes anger, which is the outgrowth of harboring hate and resentment, in this way.

Anger: Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possible the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack you lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back – in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

Living a life filled with hatred and resentment means that we have given control of our lives over to the very thing we hate or resent. Slowly our hearts become closed off until we are able to even say no to the love of God. There is a story of a seminary professor who had the students draw pictures of someone they disliked or even hated. If it was not a single person, then they were asked to draw a caricature of someone who represented a group of people they couldn’t stand or hated. Then they were asked to tape the pictures on a large piece of paper taped over a bulletin board in the room. Each student was given darts and asked to throw the darts at the drawing of the person they hated. Again and again the darts flew and ripped the pictures apart. The professor then went and took out the darts, and removed the paper the tattered and torn pictures were taped to. There was a picture of Jesus, now tattered and torn by the violent energy of the darts. The professor said, “that is your lesson for today” and left the room in silence.

Where there is hatred, sow peace. What is healed is your own heart.