Pruning Hate with Love

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiples violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says, 'love your enemies,' he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies--or else? The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged in to the dark abyss of annihilation...
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity.  It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with true."  

(Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love) 

This past week I have come across more instances of racial discrimination than before.  Being an Asian American, it is not uncommon to experience such things...and if I'm perfectly honest, I guess a part of me has become almost numb to this fact and I would rather dismiss such offenses because it is just easier not to deal with it.  However, as I reflect upon Reverend King who was martyred for living out Christ's command to love, I am reminded that love is active and not passive.  Love certainly pushes us to embrace and forgive our enemies, but love must also compel us to pray for and win over our enemies.  Love means that we speak truth (seasoned with grace) to those who are going in the wrong direction, and love allows us to hope that God's grace would nudge them in the right direction.  Love also urges us to build rather than break or sever relationships.  And love means that we love those who are difficult to love--for this is how our God demonstrated His love to us, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).  


I believe this year, God has been pushing me to get outside my comfort zone and start learning how to love those who are not easy to love.  I hate this discipline because already I see how God is exposing so much of the selfishness that reigns in me. Yet, at the same time, I am grateful for this discipline because I believe that God is pruning away my ugliness so that more of His beauty can remain in this broken world.