Hate is a strong word....

How many times a day do you think you use that word? People are so quick to say how much they hate something or someone. We use that term so loosely and I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. Aren't we told by God to only hate what is evil? In Romans, we're told that our love must be sincere and we are commanded throughout the Bible to love. Well if our love is sincere we can't hate people right? So why is it that whenever someone hurts us by the choices they make we go straight to hatred. I think for me its like a defense mechanism. I figure if I hate that person then they can't hurt me, but I'm pretty sure in reality I'm just hurting myself. By clinging on to that hatred I can't let it go then I'm walking around weighed down with all this anger and resentment towards one person or in some cases more than one person. It's like I'm loading a wagon of crap....just piles and piles of dirty, smelly, crap and pulling it around with me. It's so not fun and I think I'm finally coming to a place in my life where I can forgive and love. It sounds so easy right? Trust me. It's not. Especially when the hurt is so deep. But I also believe in loving the person and hating the sin. For example....having a father who chooses to be a homosexual. I love my father....he's hilarious and I mean c'mon....it's my dad. I spent so many years hating him for leaving my mother, putting us through (for a lack of better term) hell, and turning his back on God and his family. I lugged around this wagon of crap and after awhile you just get tired of pulling the wagon so you can do one of two things. You can either roll in the crap and be consumed by the nastiness and smell and be unhappy, or you can let go of the handle. I chose to let go of the handle and let me tell you, it has been a total relief. I no longer have a crap wagon and I smell like roses. Now by no means am I perfect and so many times something happens that makes me want to get a new wagon and begin to pile on the crap, but some how I keep remembering how unhappy and how not fun a wagon full of crap is.