Grrrr...

Now that you know I don't say lucky and prefer to limit my use of love, it's time to add the third word to the list. It's logical, when you consider what the last two were. You can probably guess it right now, without having to look down and see what word we're talking about. I like logical progression. By now I'm sure you all know that. I hope.

Hate

Last week I told you about love and why I like to limit it's use, and today we're talking just the opposite. Where I limit the use of love because I think it can only be used in relation to people, I limit hate because I believe it can only be used in relation to one very specific (and yet, somehow broad) thing.

I hate the devil and his minions.

I don't hate having anchovies on my pizza or those times when I've gotten a hole in my new shirt the first time I wore it. Those are annoying things, perhaps, but not worth hatred.

Know what I do hate?

I hate sickness.
I hate weakness.
I hate poverty.
I hate pain.
I hate sorrow.
I hate grief.
I hate despair.
I hate rioting and rage.
I hate all that is opposed to the Lord and His ways.

Just like I can't honestly say that I love anything that isn't a person, I also can't say that I honestly hate anything that isn't of the devil.

I can't hate you, friend. No matter what you might have done to me, to anyone, I can't hate you. I do my very best to hold you innocent in my esteem, of all wrongdoing.

Why? Because that's what I was asked to do.

I was commanded to forgive, and so I forgive.

But that doesn't mean I can't hate the root of it all. Even God hates the root of evil: the devil himself. God would that no one should perish, that none go to the gates of hell — and the devil is the one who takes people there. God hates that. It pains Him. He despises it, because He is good. Good must despise evil.

And so I do.

I don't hate anything that is not evil. But evil I hate. I despise it.

I hope that you do as well, and that you also love those around you with the fullest of your potential.

[love]

{Rani Divine}