HATE IS A VIRUS

                         

Everyday it gets a little bit harder and our words get a little bit sharper.  We’re not satisfied until we weaponize everything that use to be civilized.   The same voices crying in the name of love, rip the opposition for political positioning.  Dehumanize, demonize, criticize; when will we realize.  Hate is a virus.  None are righteous.  God is love and life is priceless.  Can we just replace the hate with grace, faith and love?   These are the words from a song that I penned one afternoon after the program.  I had just signed off the air and the words of one of my guests were still ringing in my heart.  She said, “We like to weaponize even the most innocent things.”  I realized that not one area of life has been spared the infection of hate.

 

We are now 6 months into a pandemic with has turned our world up-side down.  We’ve submitted to lock down, telecommuting and face masks, restricted travel, as a regular part of our new way of life.  We have separated ourselves from loved ones and friends.  We’ve watched while people we care about are carted away to hospitals in lonely silence and die just as alone, in isolation.  We’ve lived in fear of contact and of normalcy.  We’ve done it all to avoid the spread of the Corona Virus, a vile and scary monster.  But there is another monster among us, eating us alive, and it comes from within, hate.

 

Everyday Health has a piece on, The Destructive Power of Hate. It started with this thought, “Poison isn’t always something you eat or drink – it can be an emotion. And hate is one of them.”   Our society is reeling from the poison of hate and what hate and anger do to our health is profound.  Toxic emotions can lead to serious health problems.  (Huffpost) “Prolonged bouts of anger can take a toll on the body in the form of high blood pressure, stress, anxiety, headaches and poor circulation. Research also shows that even one five-minute episode of anger is so stressful that it can impair your immune system for more than six hours. All of these health issues can lead to more serious problems such as heart attacks and stroke. Anger and hatred can be directed at yourself or at other people, but either way you lose when you allow these negative foods for the soul to take over.   

 

Then there is the toll it takes on society at large.  At the heart of crime, broken relationships, social division, rioting and violence is anger and hate.  Stories in the headlines like

Man Who Sucker Punched 12-Year-Old Dancer Charged 

Family seeks answers in West Seattle suitcase homicides

Judge Sets Bail At $1.2M For Driver Accused Of Hitting Protesters

 
10 more arrests as some protesters clash with Seattle Police Department again


Police investigating after ‘incendiary’ fire at Central District Uncle Ike’s

The world looks to policy and politics as their only remedy.  Like masks and social distancing for the Coronavirus;  these are measures that can only do so much as the virus spreads.  We have a cure, an inoculation.  Anger can look differently in the light of this spiritual treatment.  Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry but do not sin…”  29, “ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” The God of all love is able to erase the infection of hate and replace it with grace, faith and love and the greatest of these is love. 

 

THESES ARE THE HEADLINES THAT COME FROM LOVE:

 

Atlanta Teen Raises over $160,000 to Help Black-Owned Businesses Destroyed during Riots

Dozens Baptized, Healed at Intersection Where George Floyd Was Killed, Supernatural Revival Ensues at George Floyd Memorial Site

God's Going to Take Care of My Son': Father of 19-Year-Old Believed to Be Killed in 'CHOP' Gives Heartbreaking Interview

 

 

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