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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