Can Hate Be Something We Don't Hate?

I know I already posted this video, but just watch it again as I build my point. And if you only have dial-up (Niki), it is worth the wait.



So I ask you, can hate be good? I am beginning to feel that the answer to that question is a very resounding, "YES." If hate can cause true change, I think so. It has really caused me to think about me, my surroundings, and my actions in response to those surroundings. Read this quote from The Legacy of Sovereign Joy by John Piper:

"Here's the goal and the problem as Augustine saw it:

The soul of men shall hope under the shadow of Thy wings; they shall be made
drunk with the fullness of Thy house; and the torrents of Thy pleasures Thou
wilt give them to drink; for in Thee is the Fountain of Life, and in Thy Light
shall we see the light? Give me a man in love: he knows what I mean.
Give me one who yearns; give me one who is hungry; give me one far away in this
desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the Eternal country.
Give me that sort of man: he knows what I mean. But if I speak to a cold
man, he just does not know what I am talking about...

"These words from Augustine should make our hearts burn with renewed longing for God. And they should help us see why it is so difficult to display the glory of the Gospel to so many people. The reason is that so many do not long for anything very much. They are just coasting. They are not passionate about anything. They are 'cold' not just toward the glory of Christ in the Gospel, but toward everything. Even their sins are picked at rather than swallowed with passion."

My life has been a "picking at" in every sense of the expression over the last one and a half years; maybe even more. I truly have been cold toward everything in life. I have been taught that my passion should be curbed and is a bad thing. Rather than encourage me to channel that passion, I've been encouraged to ditch it. I've lost it, so I have become lethargic and cold. I have sat in a room with one tiny window, little work to concern myself with, and little social contact, which has encouraged that lethargy, and it has continued to give way to depression. What is not to hate about that?

NO MORE! I'm sick of this quasi-existence that I have lived! From now on, in my life, I will "sing it like I hate it!" How do I find this passion again? I don't know. What I do know: I will never pick at my sins or at my life again! If I do something wise or stupid, I'm swallowing it whole! I have lived with a spirit of timidity towards everything, and I hate that! I have lived with fear over this or that, and I hate that! I have grown cold in my concern and compassion for others, and I hate that! I have been afraid to do certain things, and I'm swallowing it whole! May I never be lukewarm again! I will sing it like I hate it! HATE SOMETHING, CHANGE SOMETHING! MAKE SOMETHING BETTER! AND I WILL!

Some say, "Dance like no one is watching," yet I say, from now on, "Sing it like you hate it!"

Now get out there and swallow life whole. Put down the cobb salad with fat free dressing. Quit pushing the croutons around your plate. Go out there and get a steak. Cook it medium-rare. Take huge bites. Gulp the red wine as if it were the last drink of anything you'll ever have. Sing it like you hate it.

Blessings,

Big J

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it." Fyodor Dostoevsky