Love, Hate and Post-it Notes

Not long ago, an old high-school friend of mine (and I don't mean "old" - I mean "lone time ago") shared some sensitive personal stuff with me, but let's just say hate was involved.

Now, I do have a post about "rhetoric" and "hateful" words on this blog that came in the wake of the Gabby Giffords shooting a year ago, and some of this still applies here, but perhaps it might be helpful to address this from a more personal level, not just a generic environment that comes from political "rhetoric," a "call for civility," or "hate speech."

What if hate was very personal, like in the case of my friend?

The principle mentioned in the previous post still applies, but rather than working on a 30,000-foot view of the world and praying for a loving presence in it, let's bring this down to the ground and look at it from an individual level.

Hate is a demon, a devil - something that was cast out by Jesus. How? By love. He loved, loved, loved. But he didn't just love the person who was hateful, he loved everyone and had a loving presence about him - he loved everyone he dealt with, everything he did had a loving intention and effect.

We, as children of God, who is defined as "love" (in I John), are naturally loving. That is our personhood - loving, gracious, merciful. And we're perfectly so, because our Father-Mother, God, is perfect Love. Love is very personal in that it's part of our identity and how we identify others. Hate, on the other hand, is very impersonal - it comes from nowhere. It was not created by God and no one was created to be hateful. Hate can be a demon that infests anyone at any time. Love is part of who we are as persons, children of God, and is a natural part of each of us, all the time.

A Christian Science teacher and international lecturer who is a friend of mine discussed hate or most other "evils" or "demons" in an impersonal sense - as Post-it Notes.

When you are dealing with a "hateful" person, think of them as being covered in those ubiquitous Post-it Notes. A perfect, loving, child of God is standing there with evils on Post-it Notes. Why Post-its? Because they are not part of who we are; we weren't born or arrived in this world with Post-its on our bodies! On these Post-its are words like "hateful", "arrogant", "angry", "greedy", etc. Or, in this example, maybe every single Post-it says "hateful." We can take three steps in our thought to help us think of this person in the way Jesus would.

Detect - Detect the Post-it Note on him, the one that says "hateful."
Detach - Detach it from the person. Just go to him and pull it off his body.
Destroy - Throw away the Post-it Note. Or better yet, burn it! Fire is a Biblical symbol of purification!

You continue this process in yoru thought until all of the Post-its are removed, and you behold the perfect, loving, merciful and gracious child of God that is your brother or sister in Christ.

Love is personal because it is part of who we are, individually. Hate is very impersonal. When you know and realize that, any "hateful" things that are said or thought about you have no power - they're just on a Post-it Note that can be easily detached from ourselves or from others.

The big step that helps this is love. Just love, love, love. The more you love yourself and the more loving you are in your words and actions - not just to the "hateful" individual, but to everyone with whom you come into contact - you will take away any power that "hate" is believed to have. Without God behind it, hate has zero power - unless we decide to give it such. But if our thought and life is so filled with love, there is no place or time to give hate any attention - and thus, no power.

Love is the power in the universe. Keep it that way in your thought, and hate will show its weakness.