Break the Hate

First, recognize the Hate.
So easy to see in others. So easy to see directed at others.
So easy to justify, rationalize, defend...in me.
Impossible to break without recognizing -- Hate.

What is Hate? The opposite of Love?

Love is patient. Love is kind.
There is no room to be envious or boastful when you love.
Love is not rude and doesn't insist on its own way. Rather than demanding rights, it looks out for the rights of others.
Love is not irritable and resentful.
Love is never happy to see wrong or participate in wrong, instead it is overjoyed with what is good and true and pure and right.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love bears all things, believes all things and is full of hope.
Love endures all things.
Love never ends...once grasped, it becomes part of us and it will not leave us.

As for hate, not so. Hate can be smothered by love, done away with. Hate can be broken down, broken to pieces and swept away.

I'm counting on it.

I have a long way to go. I cannot yet admit that I hate. But I do. I hate injustice...which is so very noble of me. It's a virtue. But my virtue is my vice. Hating injustice and unjust behavior translates to hating people who are unjust, hating the bigots: racists, religious extremists, hypocrites, dogmatists, legalists, chauvinists, homophobes, political fanatics, who are terrorists in their own right.

I hate people who hate people.

And there I am -- grouped alongside them.

First I have to recognize it.
So easy to see in others.
So easy to justify in myself.

Dear God, it's time to break the hate. Starting with the hate in me.