Resist Hate

On my way home on Friday, I saw a car with the following bumper sticker.

I am struck by the combination of these two words. They don't go together. Kind of like "gorge slower" or "crawl faster". There is no way to resist hate. Hate is a raging fire that consumes everything in its path. Do you really think we can reason out of hate? Did the suicide bomber who targeted teenagers wake up that morning and try to reason his way out of the despicable act?

There is natural evil in that heart of ours. The separation between me and the terrorist is not that great. I blogged about this when Osama Bin Laden was killed. As an example, when I drive behind a person driving slowly and my "righteous" anger seethes and I curse at them. I have read many books on the Rwanda genocide as I have visited Rwanda twice. How could people kill their neighbor - people they had known for years? The answer is simple - they saw them, not as friends and neighbors, but as objects of the enemy. People when asked why they killed simply expressed it as a "job to be done". Just like the terrorist.

Hate needs to be transformed, not resisted. Hate must be transformed by love. We must see people the same way God sees them - in His image.We must empathize with them. We realize that they are not objects of God's wrath, but troubled recipients of His grace just like me. The love must be seated in that perspective, not some sappy man-made emotional reaction. This kind of transformation is 100% supernatural. I cannot will myself out of this deep-seated hate in my heart. God must do that. Hate is still there but it is crowded out by love.

James 4:7 is a great verse for this - "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."  This verse, at first blush, almost seems to support my friend's bumper sticker. In fact, it is the opposite. We are to submit to God first. Second, the resisting is against the author of hate, not the hate itself. The resistance must come supernaturally from God through his changing grace. 

I Like You

My wife and I have a strange, but nice pattern where when we encounter each other, we say "I Like You". What we are saying is that we appreciate the strengths and the mutual affection we have for each other. This phrase "I Like You" does not replace love. Love is an act of the will and has nothing to do with the other person. My wife could be completely unresponsive and I would still love her. But in saying "I Like You", I am saying I appreciate all that is contained in her being. This is consistent with the words for love in the bible. The word agape refers to the unconditional love, the covenant commitment love whereas phileo refers to brotherly affection or the Greek word equivalent of like.

I have started to use my Fitbit more. The other day I realized something. After I charge the Fitbit up fully, it flashes on the screen "I Like You". Wow, I did not realize my Fitbit likes me. I could sit on my lazy butt for weeks on end and after I charge my Fitbit, it will still say "I Like You". That is not agape love or phileo love, but self-love. The programmers of the Fitbit software (it's always the software) figured out that we better put motivational concepts in or people will get discouraged or apathetic.

It got my thinking how many people confuse self-love with brotherly love, or even worse with covenant love. Self love can never stand alone. The bible says to "let another praise you and not your own mouth" (Proverbs 27:2). I can come up with all my own motivational statements all day long but in the end, I must have someone else to admire something in me, even when I am a complete screw-up. God has wired us to long for the affection and admiration of others. It is part of what keeps us in relationship.

On Apple vs. the Government

The government wants information from Apple and Apple refuses to provide that information. It would seem that most of us would naturally gravitate towards supporting Apple. After all, who wants "big brother" cracking into our precious devices? The very thought conjures up the Hunger Games society of President Snow.

Yet Apple is seemingly losing the court of public opinion on this matter. And if you break it down, it is not hard to determine why. We all desire two very core things in the society we live in. The first is basic safety and protection. Who knows how many were involved in this act of terrorism. The uncertainty of it and the fact that it came out of nowhere feeds our insecurities of basic safety. The second core societal issue is the need for justice. Justice has already been served for the main perpetrators - they were killed. But there are others out there and we demand a sense of justice. So in the end, we are willing to give up a potential right to privacy to advance these two basic needs.

The bible advances that same concept. A Christian is a "doulos" or slave. But he is not a slave because he has been compelled to be. He is a slave because he completely trusts the master and the master has shown himself worth to be trusted. The master holds the key to security and justice and God has shown in Christ perfect love and perfect justice. Therefore we rest in the arms of the master as a slave. God knows us so perfectly that this willing act is not for God but for us. The government as a human institution is not perfect like God and there certainly can be some distrust. But at the end of the day, the government advances our own interests of security and justice and that is a stronger basic need than privacy. How much more can we trust in God for these same basic human needs?