The other day Erich and I were talking about how Jussie Smollet’s attacker was finally sentenced to jail time, which brought up the dangers of Critical Race Theory, which led to a conversation about the five middle schoolers who beat up four fellow white students for having white skin last week. River was sitting at the table, and exclaimed, “Why?! Why are people doing those things?!” We reminded her that the enemy comes to steal and to kill and to destroy (John 10:10). We started talking about how he tries to divide us and stirring up hate is the best way to do that. Then the light bulb clicked on in my own brain. The enemy’s ultimate goal is always to subvert God’s plans and design. In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself, there is no commandment greater than these.” As a matter of fact, in Galatians 5:14 it says that the entire law is fulfilled in that one commandment. If God’s heart is for us to love each other, and in doing so, we fulfill all the other laws, it makes sense that the enemy would want us to hate each other instead.
Hate is defined as: intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger or sense of injury. It’s easy to think that because we love God, we don’t participate in hate. Unfortunately, I had an experience this week that tore me apart and only confirmed that even believers struggle in this area. I follow a Christian conservative news outlet called Red Voice Media. This week one of the content providers started a narrative that I found to be highly offensive and extremely dangerous. This news outlet, and its contributors, talk like believers to the extent that I wouldn’t imagine too many non-believers follow them. But the hate they were pushing was intense, and, in my opinion, their anger was misplaced. Dr. Jane Ruby basically stated that nurses who stayed working in the hospital system over the course of this last year, were complicit in the deaths of anyone who died of the Covid protocols or the “vaccine.” I objected and was immediately attacked by other listeners. The ugliness thrown my direction threw me for a loop. I think I’m still experiencing disorientation. I conceded that some doctors and nurses are indeed following orders against their better judgement and, mostly likely, their conscience, but encouraged them not to group all nurses together. I shared stories about the moral struggle Erich has felt, the discrimination he has faced for being unvaxxed, his desire to quit and go back to automotive, but his decision to stay to help as many people as possible. He doesn’t test, vaccinate, or push the vaccine, yet these people labeled him a murderer and said he was going to face judgement one day, which in their minds is being hanged or fried. I’m not even exaggerating. The things people said to me were both shocking and revealing, considering the audience.
If this scenario had played out on Twitter, I would have shrugged my shoulders and muted the conversation. But I saw the worst in people that I had naively expected the best from. I stayed civil and pled with them to see the possibility that one person could make a difference, implored them to see the logic and the ramifications of all the good nurses walking out. I felt like I’d been knocked to the ground as they gathered around and just kept pummeling me. Like I told them, I’m not a nurse and I’m not defending myself, therefore it is not personal offense that broke my heart. Erich has been expecting this kind of reaction for awhile now, so he was not taken off guard. What confounded me was the revelation that the enemy has so deeply penetrated even our “camp,” so as to corrupt it with enough hate to turn on each other. If they had argued their case even somewhat civilly, I wouldn’t have been as distraught. It wasn’t about the difference of opinion. It was just people, angry at what they perceive (and rightly so) to be a great injustice, to the point of blind hatred towards people who were also treated unjustly, and who will also bear the burden of the cost of that “crime.” Again, I do believe there are doctors and nurses who, knowing better, did things that went against their moral compass. Whether it was out of fear, or apathy, or greed is not for me to decide. But we cannot respond like the far left, who groups people together based on race, wealth, gender, or faith and then criminalizes them for things other people, or previous generations, in their “group” have done. We cannot allow hate to dominate. We try to keep things simple raising our kids: our purpose in life, is to love God and love people. If we allow hate to creep in, it jeopardizes, contaminates, and destroys everything else, like poison.
We watched the Adam Project the other day, and at one point the 12-year-old said, “I think it’s easier to be angry than to be sad.” Isn’t that the truth?! I think the whole world is struggling between anger and sadness. Initially, my first reaction was anger. How could people be so illogical, and ugly, and naïve, and hateful? But that anger turned to sadness. The state of our country, our culture, and the people in it… it grieves me. I know some of you are ready to encourage me that our hope lies, not in people, but in God. I agree one hundred percent. If I didn’t, I’d be done for. But I’m forever an optimist when it comes to people. I want to have faith in people. I want to hope for the best. I want to see people rise above the enemy’s plan and shut it down. Those people that were so angry and hateful toward me, they are just misguided. I know they are just angry at evil. I know that they don’t know what to do with their frustration, or maybe even fear. They crave justice, like I do, but they are confusing righteous anger with hate. That is not a mistake we can afford to make. It only adds strength to the power of evil. Love though, love is more powerful than hate. Love does not dishonor others, it is not easily angered, it rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Don’t fall prey to the schemes of the enemy. He wants us to hate to love and love to hate. His motive is simple: undo everything God has done. If God is love, it makes sense that the devil’s greatest tool would be hate. Don’t cave. Yes, pursue justice and speak truth, be righteously angry at the schemes of the enemy, but do not let hate creep in and dominate your heart, your words, or your life.
Wander More 