HATE

All he did was ask a woman to put her dog on a leash as the law in Central park mandated. She called the police and told them that a black man was threatening her life. The police charged her with filing a false police report.

The man’s name is Christian Cooper. He refused to press charges or cooperate with her arrest. He said, “I must err on the side of compassion.” This is a man who is living up to his first name.

I can’t know what it is like to be black in America. How do you deal with the constant threat and systemic racism? How can you do that and not become full of hatred?

It is so easy to fall into the trap of hatred. We divide the world into them and us and soon we are embittered enough to hate “them.” Maybe they showed some hatred first. So, we feel justified in hating them back. And Jesus weeps.

In his sermon in Matthew, Jesus says that hating your brother makes you spiritually guilty of murder. There are things that make me angry. There are injustices that make me want to hate the hater. But there is Jesus reminding me that he taught us a new way to live. It’s hard. The old saying is “bury the hatchet but don’t forget where you buried it.” As a follower of Jesus, I am compelled to forget.

Real peace requires that we give up on hate and resentment. That is not so much for the benefit of the one who has wronged us as it is for ourselves. Hate eats up the hater.

So, I want to live more like Jesus. I want to be more like Christian Cooper who demonstrated true faith in Jesus. It’s not easy. But things that are truly worthwhile rarely are.