"Your life is defined by what you hate. Whatever you don't hate you allow, and whatever you allow you will never change" ~ Myles Munroe
Immaterial things I hate:
- Cold
- Spicy food
- Snow
- Ice (even in my soda)
- Soda (maybe an occasional sip is all right)
- Unnecessary chaos
- Winter
- Dogs
- Freezing
- Dirt where it doesn't belong
- Lazy people
- Video games
- Trash: on the side roads, inside and outside of houses, and on people instead of decent clothes.
- Being cold
Material things I hate:
- Abortion
- Stupid Idiots aka Selfish Idiots
- Cold
- Death
- Misunderstandings
- Men who are narcissistic jerks
- Women who are narcissistic jerks
- People are who are obsessed with cutting "toxic" people from their lives but refusing to love anyone besides themselves
- False philosophies (socialism, "follow your dreams", "love yourself", etc)
- Complacency
- Inaction
- Hate
- Sin
While I've written many posts on loving more, I think hate isn't really the issue. It is good to hate ... but it's wrong to hate the wrong things.
 |
| This is something that my brother wood burned/ wrote. |
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good (Romans 12:9)
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate (Proverbs 8:13)
The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence (Psalm 11:5)
O you who love the Lord, hate evil! (Psalm 97:10)
We need to evaluate what we hate. We must hate that which is evil.
I think I agree with Myles Munroe when he says that what we hate defines us.
Are we hating what we should be hating?
Are we allowing evil to grow more in ourselves and around us by watering it with unhealthy love?
When Myles Munroe said the above words, he was speaking of becoming the person we want to become. He says, "You're designing your future with your habits. We don't decide our future, we decide our habits. And our habits are designing our future."
And if we allow bad habits to remain in our life ... well then, how can we ever hope for a better future?
How can we judge the world around us, if we refuse to remove the log from our own eyes? (Matthew 7:5) And then once we do remove that log, how can we allow the world to continue on its downward spiral without acting in love and doing something about all the evil of the world, by using the gifts God has blessed us with and hating the things that tear apart God's perfect Creation?
What do you hate?
*Quotes from Myles Munroe come from this video on youtube.
**Yes, the title is a play on Sound of the Music's, "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things". I had the hardest time ever finding a true antonym for favorite when writing this post. At least one that doesn't sound awkward. The best word was least-liked, and the one I settled on means "black beast". You'd think it'd be easier. I mean, English is one of the most widely spoken languages. And so many of us hate each other ... so why isn't there a better word?
I love this. So thought-provoking and such an important heart-check reminder!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lila! It is good to always remember to check our hearts with issues like this ;0
DeleteYeah, I think there's definitely a place for hate. If you think about it, it's not the OPPOSITE of love but the FLIP SIDE of love--it has the same burning intensity, but it's directed at that which *threatens* your beloved thing. Therefore, I will maintain that we should love everything fiercely--"everything" meaning everything good, as evil has no essence but is a corruption of the good--and hate sin.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, Keturah!
Ahhh yes I love how you say it's the flip side.
DeleteAnd you're so right ... if we love fiercely we will hate that which violates that which we love; namely sin ;)
I love the play on the title!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a good post <3
THANK YOU, GRAY!!!!
DeleteOkay, this is amazing. And I love that opening quote. Reminds me of that prayer "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference," which has never sat right with me because...the point isn't can you change it. The point is should you try.
ReplyDeleteLike, one of my heroes is lowkey John Quincy Adams, who served in the House of Representatives for twenty-something years before his death trying to get slavery abolished. At a time when, as an abolitionist, he was vastly in the minority. There was no way he was going to succeed, and he didn't succeed (he died in 1848), but he never stopped trying, because he hated slavery. Because slavery is WRONG.
It's interesting that the Bible says God is Love, which we tend to think means hatred must be wrong! because hatred and love can't exist together, but...it's kinda what Megan said, isn't it? They're not opposites; they're the two aspects of the one thing. You can't be kind if you have any tolerance for cruelty. You can't love what's right if you don't hate what's wrong.
Anyway, YES. Love this post.
(And I think top of the list for what I hate would be unfaithfulness, and lack of gentleness. Though complacency and soda are pretty awful too. :P)
AHHHH, you know that prayer has always been kinda like "I think that's nice in a nice world, but also so very flat" and now I see why. We should be trying regardless of how we feel, because God gave us work to do and work we must.
DeleteAnd wow. That example is amazing. That actually gives me a measure of hope as these last few days I've been so overwhelmed with the world and my impossible mission in it.
I love how you say we can't be kind if we have a tolerance for cruelty. THAT is what weighs me down, with the state of our world. And yes, if we love righteousness we'll hate all wrongness ;)
Thanks so much, Sarah! Love your comment.
And those are some great things to hate. I too really hate unfaithfulness. I think I need to work more on being gentle though. Ahhh, but I'm glad you agree with soda ;p
J+M+J
ReplyDeleteI would agree, though, I'm assuming when you say you "hate narcissistic jerks" you mean more "you hate the action of narcissism, presented by jerks"? As we must remember, to always love the sinner... why? Because if God the Almighty Father, who is the one directly offended and hurt by the sinners sins can still love him in spite of them, why and what excuse do we have to not?
It's the whole concept of "Hate the sin, love the sinner".
Judging from the rest of the post however, I'm pretty sure that's what's implied... so sorry for preaching to the choir.... *sigh*... again.....
But yes, I must agree most heartily! (And sorry, but I couldn't help reading Megan's comment and do think she put it in a better way then I ever could... sin is the absence of good, so provided we love good, it defaults to rejecting evil, as a full glass cannot at the same time be empty.)
As to what I hate?
Well, sins in general should always be hated, but I notice sins against chastity, modesty, and purity the most. It is such things that break anything and everything for me.
The Doorman.
Yes, I definitely mean the attitude.
DeleteI do love the saying "hate the sin, but love the sinner" but I'm actually not so sure how true that always is.
I mean, I once used to pray for Satan, and though I'll admit to sometimes still feeling sorry for him, I do believe God truly hates him because of all he's become. And there are actually many verses where God talks about hating not just the sin but that actual committers of the sin. I wrote about this in more detail in my post "Innocent Love and Righteous Hatred"
And I forgot to reply to the rest of your comment, but yes, I adore what Megan said, as I almost always do ;) And I love how you say a full glass cannot be empty at the same time :D
DeleteAnd those are some great things to love and hate the lack of. Something our world certainly needs more of.
J+M+J
DeleteBut you see, God calls us to love all of mankind. Satin was outside of time, and so when he denied God and rejected him, he did so for all eternity. We, on the other hand, are human. We can still turn around... why? Because we're in time. God does love us all, we are all children of God. Remember that we are all made in the image of God. So in a way, to hate another is to hate them all. After all, you can't just say "I hate that man's arm" or "I hate that woman's head." No, that just doesn't make sense! You either hate all of them, or you don't. And so if you hate all of someone, you are also hating the soul of them, which is the made in the image and likeness of God. Remember that when God created the world (in Genesis) it says "He looked upon it and it was good". God created everything good, and everything there, was to love. It was only sin, which was first made by Satin, and then by man, that destroyed the world of love. To hate a person, or there being, is to either hate the beauty that God has created, or to hate the soul itself, which God also created. We should see Christ in every person, and I'll leave it at this: does anything in the universe ever give us a right to hate Christ?
That's my opinion of the matter... (not that you would've guessed otherwise).
Sorry for the long comment.
(And as a side note, long story short, God does not hate Satin. Indeed, He created hell for him... why? So that He, and all his evil kind, would have a place to go. To quote Dante's Inferno "Hell was created out of love".)
The Doorman.
I actually agree with you (though some would say that God only called us to love our neighbor/ brother/ enemy/ and that doesn't include those who are God's enemies, though I believer our enemies should be only those that are God's enemies, so thus we should still love them.).
DeleteI think that's interesting how you say God created hell out of love. It's a concept I'm definitely not opposed to as all of what God does is stemmed from love.
I am certainly not advocating for hating people. But I do think there's a fine line between hating sin, and recognizing how sin corrupts people to such an extent that they are no longer the beautiful creature God created. Even then though, I think we should never cease to love and pray for the soul.
Love long comments, so never feel like you must apologize :)
Oh my goodness, this post is BEAUTIFUL. I always love the messages you share, Keturah! <3 <3 <3
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks so much, Ash! Your comments are always so encouraging :)
DeleteGreat post! I've been working on focusing on the positive things lately, and it's been amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt is so important to focus on positive things. Since I'm soooo involved in politics, I find this especially true for myself.
DeleteIt is hilarious to me that you hate being cold when I love it. XD I would rather be cold then hot.
ReplyDeleteTrue! I tend to think "love everything", but we can't just blindly ignore actual bad things. If we hate them we acknowledge them and can sometimes fix the problems. Great post!
Yeah, most of my friends prefer the cold, but I try not to judge them for it ;p haha, just kidding. But yeah, I think it might partly be because I grew up in the South.
DeleteYes, once I was very much the same way, and even now I can be too trusting, which makes it all the harder when one is confronted by the bitter truth that not all is as good as we would like it to be. It's a fine balance, this hating and loving business ;)
I don't hate video games. I've played a few, and I think like any game, they need to be used in moderation. (I dislike sports more, because those seem to cause more problems with society, like people in town expecting taxpayers to pay for their kids to do sports and the sports get everywhere on media, and idolizing them is acceptable.)
ReplyDeleteI love dogs, but I hate it when people let dogs pee in the house.
I agree with a lot of your hatreds. I don't like soda at all.
Yeah, if I'm being honest, I don't hate video games as much as I used to ... I've learned to accept that it's okay for some people to love them. Still not me though ;0
DeleteI love playing sports! But don't really like watching them unless it's of actual friends. But yeah don't like the politics around sports.
People actually let their dogs do that??? Ugh, I think I like them even less now.
I'm glad you agree with most of them ;)
TBH, I like a sip of soda on occasion, but not most of the time.