Love Trumps Hate
I am fortunate to be able to do something that I love
regularly and that is to teach and train. Mostly I train chaplains and
sometimes business leaders but each time I teach a class or train a group, I
start out with the training objectives and definitions. So, to be proper, I
want to make everyone aware of the definitions. These are taken from merriam-webster.com:
-
Love: a (1) : strong affection for
another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal love for a child (2) : attraction based
on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers After all these years, they are
still very much in love. (3) : affection based
on admiration, benevolence,
or common interests love for his old school mates b : an assurance of
affection
-
Hate:
a :
intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or
sense of injury b :
extreme dislike or disgust : antipathy, loathing
So, based on my looked up, professional definitions, we
can surmise that a good definition of love is strong affection and admiration.
Likewise we can say that hate is hostility, dislike, and disgust. Hopefully we
can all agree there before continuing. If not, then thanks for reading; I am
not confident you won’t be able to grasp my intentions if we can’t agree on at
least that much…
For those still reading, here are my thoughts for a rainy Monday.
I was listening to the news during one of my many commutes this morning and
heard some clips from Arianna Grande’s music benefit for Manchester. The theme
was love and it seemed well put together. I also read a lot and while scrolling
through my usual online news, I saw a demonstration somewhere (the location
really didn’t matter to me) opposing President Trump and in one of the pictures
I saw a sign that read, “Love Trumps Hate”.
Over the last 10 years our political climate in America
has taken a nasty turn. By our definitions, both sides have shown extreme
dislike/disgust toward what has become their enemy. People spend countless
hours “hating” their opponents with a complete disregard of the message they
are trying to promote.
I have to be honest, I liked President Bush. I liked the
way he carried himself. I loved the accent. I liked the way he said, “America” and
he seemed to talk about our resilience often. I wasn’t a fan of the war but I
trusted the fact that he was the president and I wasn’t.
I liked President Obama. I made a statement to one of my
friends that I bet he would be fun to just hang out with, to which the friend
was appalled that I would say such a thing about the enemy. I didn’t agree with
many of the things that he did and was not happy at all about the way that I felt
he turned his back on law enforcement as a whole because of the actions of a
few but I didn’t hate him. I didn’t have any extreme dislike or disgust for
him. While Republicans and those affiliated would make jokes about him taking
time to fill out a March Madness bracket I was excited because he seemed real. He
even took time to make fun of himself at times and that showed maturity and
security.
I’m trying to like Trump. Honestly, I want to like him
more because of all the hate surrounding him. Before you start yelling, “He
hated first” like a second grader on the playground, hear me out, please. He
and I have nothing in common. To be true to everyone, I have very little in
common with any President. I personally wish that his cell phone would melt
down, never to be revived. He reminds me of how my grandfather might have been
if every thought or statement that he made was put on Twitter with a million
followers. It would not be pretty. But, he is the President of the United
States and I will respect that position. If he calls and invites me to play
golf, I’ll be there just like I would have with President Obama.
Love Trumps Hate. I wonder if those carrying signs and
posting on social media know what this statement means. I wonder if they care.
I try so hard not to get offended when I see some of the asinine statements
that people make but it is difficult. I am also sad. Sad that such hypocrisy
exists in our society either out of ignorance of what those words mean or have
we become so narcissistic that we know what it means but we just don’t think
that the rules apply to us.
And this is where the usual argument turns to personal
insults or attacking the “opposition”. Love means to have affection and admiration
for someone. Hate means to have hostility or disgust for someone. I can
honestly say that I have no hate for anyone. I struggle with some but I hope
that my maturity and faith have brought me to a place that if I feel disgust
for someone that I can find it in myself to look for a reason to love. I pray
that there are those who are preaching “Love Trumps Hate” will find a way to
love more and hate less.
And finally, instead of always pointing at others who
hate, what if we took some personal responsibility and took an inventory of our
attitude, online personality, and the way we treat people? And then measure it against our definitions to see
if we should be telling others to love more or if we should be loving more
ourselves? I bet the world would begin to look a little different. Maybe not
the entire world, but your world and my world for sure.
Have a great day,
Pastor Dad
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