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This past week was extremely difficult as we have wrestled with the devastation unleashed on this country through the hate-filled efforts of three individuals that mailed bombs to others and shot and killed thirteen people. Last week, the eleven victims of the tragic Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill was so shocking to hear coming from a city that I happen to know intimately.
When I heard that eleven people were killed, my heart started breaking for a city that I was not born in, had no prior connection to, nor particularly liked because our sports teams are bitter rivals (#WhoDey!). However, all of that changed when my wife and I moved there. It was in Pittsburgh that I began a new chapter in both of our stories. It was in Pittsburgh that I experienced the joys and deep frustrations of renting for the first time. It was in Pittsburgh that my wife and I learned what it meant to trust in God for that months rent and next months groceries. It was in Pittsburgh that I what type of man I was and what type of man I actually wanted to be. It was in Pittsburgh that I learned what true friendship and community was and how unlikely individuals can shape you even though you had never met them prior, all because of their welcoming spirit into a city that you had never set foot in prior to moving there.
While what happened in Pittsburgh was shocking, it was not surprising (read why here). Our culture has been heading down this road for quite some time now. We have allowed hate to fill our words, whether they are spoken, painted on a sign, or blasted onto a social media wall. We have allowed hate to devolve and devalue us as individuals and as a society. We live in echo chambers that only reconfirm our preferences, our own beliefs, our own implicit biases, our own versions of the truth, all while lobbing straight venom at people that don't look like, love like, vote like, or pray like you do. It's wrong. It needs to stop. Here's how.
We need to start living lives filled with love.
Let's be honest though. What does that even mean? Our culture has drifted so far from the ideal that we don't even know what love is anymore because we only equate it to a feeling, a mutual affection toward someone or some concept, or just a physical, sexual act.
Love is so much more than that. Love is more potent, powerful, and pervasive than just a feeling or concept. It can simply, yet powerfully, encompass your entire life, but you have to let it.
The reason why we have to allow love to encompass our lives, is because love is fundamentally a choice. While love can be a feeling, an affection toward someone else or some thing, or even displayed through sex, love is not just those things. Instead, love is an intentional choice to elevate the needs of some else above your own by being the solution to their suffering. Simply put, love is simply serving someone else by choosing to do so.
How do we do that though? How do we allow love to defeat the hate that is in our lives, in our words, and in our world? How do we allow love to be stronger than the hate that is in our world?
First, you have to be persistent because love is persistent.
I read a great article by Nancy Gibbs, titled The Only Way to Fight Hate in Time magazine where she said that following: "If the opposite of love is indifference, then the antidote to hate is engagement." WOW! That is so true and such a great reminder because when we start living a life filled with love, then we start becoming persistent in showing love to those around us, whether they deserve it or not.
We see this type of love displayed God's persistence toward us. In Romans 8:37-39, we see the Apostle Paul addressing some terrible suffering that Roman believers in Jesus were facing during the time he was writing to them and he reminded them that,
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I [Paul] am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul's message still rings true for us today. Nothing and I mean nothing can keep up from God's love. No tourists bullet or packaged bomb can conquer love. No weaponized Facebook post or ad can conquer love. No hate filled message from our leaders, specifically designed to appeal to our base fears, can conquer love. Why? because God, who is love, is persistent and so should our love be toward those who are hurting, those who are different than us, and anyone else we come in contact with everyday.
Love is stronger than hate because love is persistent while hate is temporary. According to F.D.R., "Any nation or group nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred ..." Therefore, if we are persistent in our love, we will conquer hate. Keep being persistent and while you are at it, start pursuing others with love.
Second, you have to pursue because love pursues.
Okay, please do not start stalking people. That is not the type of pursuing I am talking about. Love is not creepy, rather it persistently pursues those who need it the most.
It was so inspiring to see that LaunchGood, a Muslim-focused crowdfunding site, raised more than $230,000 to help the families of the eleven victims since the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. That is how love pursues those who are hurting.
Persistently pursuing others with love looks like sacrificially serving those in need around you. For all those who donated to LaunchGood, they sacrificed some sum of money to serve those grieving families. That type of self-sacrifice is on full display in the life of Jesus because he came to serve and not to be served (Matt. 20:28; Mk. 10:45; Jn. 13:1-17). Jesus' love for you, and all of us, pursues us because he willingly left the glories of Heaven, entering into the hurt of humanity, putting on our flesh and all of the shortcomings that entails, so that he could show us an alternative way to live so that we could start living our best lives today by living lives filled with love. He did this because love for us motivated him to pursue others with that life-changing love that Jesus still offers to us today.
If you want to conquer hate, then you have to be persistent in showing your love for others by pursuing them in a loving (and not creepy) way.
Lastly, you have to be personable because love is a person.
If you haven't picked up on this yet, love is stronger than hate because love is more than a feeling, an affection, or a momentary act because love is a person, who he has a name, and that is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the exact embodiment of God's love for a broken and hurting world.
Because God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have have everlasting life. - John 3:16
The hate that we are seeing played out in a our society may be shocking, but it is not surprising to God. Rather, God gave us a solution to our societies problem with hate and his name is Jesus, the one that came preaching inclusion, grace, forgiveness, repentance, and full restoration to God so that we could live our best lives now. Yes, love is stronger than hate because love is a person whose name is Jesus.
So, while you are in line voting for your favorite candidate or preferred party, think about how you can start loving those in line with you. Maybe you can stop by Dunkin' and get a box of doughnut holes and pass them out while you and others wait (if so, I'll be there!). Maybe you could simply talk to the person in front of you and find out what similarities you may have with that person, because we have more things in common with others than we actually believe.
Start thinking about how you can love your neighbors, your own family members that didn't vote for who you voted for, the homeless guy on the corner you always pass by during your daily commute, and the list can go on and on. Whatever you do, start looking for ways to share your love for others by being persistent, by pursuing others, and by being personable because love is a person, whose name is Jesus.
We can conquer hate but only through the persistent pursuit of pointing others to the person of Jesus, who embodies perfect love and invites us to join in on his mission of displaying love to a hurting, hate-filled world that is desperate for an alternative.
What are some ways you can show love to others?
Let me know in the comments below.
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