Why do so many people hate themselves? They hate their lives, they hate their jobs and they hate other people. That’s a hard way to go through life.
What’s the answer? Some say meditation, others say yoga, some recommend a therapist or life coach. Mental health professionals tell us to eliminate the toxic people and situations in our lives. Physicians prescribe pills. And while all of these things might help, they don’t get to the root of the hate.
The only thing that destroys hate is love. Everything else is just a bandaid on the ugly, oozing wound of hatred. But LOVE? Really?? Let’s get real. And practical. We cam see hate everywhere. Where’s the love?
There is a religion that declares that “God is Love.” This religion has only one rule—that its followers should love God, love themselves, and love others. In fact the leader of this religion, Jesus of Nazareth, said that His followers should be known by their love.
Before you declare that “Christians are hypocrites,” and quit reading, stick with me a bit. You might be surprised to hear that I agree with you.
Sadly, of the estimated 2.382 billion people on earth who consider themselves Christian, most aren’t known for their outstanding reputation for loving others.
The divorce rate of Christians is roughly the same as everyone else in the general population. There seems to be no evidence to support any differences in rates of mental and physical illness. And I don’t recall reading any ground breaking studies showing empirical evidence that supports the notion of Christians being more loving toward others than the average person.
Perhaps this inability to distinguish Christians from the rest of humanity is because Christianity will take whosoever wants to join. Anyone at any time in their life, no matter what they’ve done or failed to do, no matter what they look like or act like, and with no other qualifications than a sincere desire, are welcomed to declare that Jesus is their Lord and savior.
Some of the “whosoevers” who join are from hard places. They’re rough around the edges. Many weren’t raised by people who loved them, so they don’t know how to properly love themselves and others. This doesn’t mean they’re not real Christians, but it might mean that they haven’t yet learned to live righteously. (BTW, learning how to live rightly takes a lifetime.) The good news about Christianity is that that’s OK. Jesus only expects us to do the best we can with what we know.
It is also possible that the reason that we don’t see many Christians distinguished from the rest of the world is that we’re not looking. People who are living congruent with their Christian beliefs typically aren’t calling attention to themselves. They live their lives doing what they believe is God’s purpose for them. They are the people in every line of work who quietly do the right things day in and day out. Rarely do the news vans pull up on them and shine the light on the ways they show love to others.
The way to really know where the love is, is to imagine a world without Christians. Imagine a world where the hospitals that were founded by Christians didn’t exist. The same is true for the homeless shelters, the food pantries, the child abuse and domestic violence organizations, the ministries that rescue human trafficking victims, and the many other ministries and non profit organizations that exist because some Christians decided to live a life of loving God and others.
All this is not to say that there aren’t loving people in the world who hold different beliefs, there are. But if we’re sincerely interested in getting the hate out of our lives, one way to stop hating ourselves, our jobs, our lives and so on, is to the Source of Love, the God who calls Himself Love. What have you got to lose?
You’ve got one job in this life! It’s to find and fulfill the purpose for which you were born and perfectly matched. This podcast is to help you find and fulfill your purpose and to enjoy the real success that accompanies it. Subscribe now and share this with a friend. Listen at www.rhonda.org/podcast or wherever you get good podcasts.
Rhonda Sciortino became a Christian at the age of 14 and proceeded to live the next 20 years virtually indistinguishable as a Christian--except for the cross around her neck and the "Jesus fish" on the bumper of her car. When she realized her error, she scraped the ichthys off the bumper and took the cross off of her neck until she could be recognized as a Christian without those things. For more information about Rhonda, go to www.rhonda.org/about
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