God Never Blinks: Lesson 3

LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO WASTE TIME HATING ANYONE

Quotable Quote: "If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to (those you resent), you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, and their happiness, and you will be free. Even when your prayers are only words and you don't mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks, and you will find you have come to mean it."

At first I had trouble connecting with this lesson because I couldn't think of anyone I hated. I've been lucky enough to not have had anyone ruin my life. No alcoholic or abusive parents, no childhood bully who mistreated me, no drunk driver who injured a loved one. As a Christian I'm not supposed to hate anyone, and I'd like to think that I can choose to love even people who are evil even though my human nature would much rather see them suffer. So if I think of "hate" in the sense of "this person doesn't deserve to be loved by God," then I am pretty confident that I don't hate anyone. However, the dictionary definition of the verb "hate" is: to feel extreme enmity (ill will) towards; to have a strong aversion to. And that, my friend, opens up a whole pandora's box of hatin'. For example:

Life is too short to waste time hating

1. Slow drivers in the fast lane

2. People who are completely tactless

3. People who bring their 2 year old to Walmart at 10 p.m. and scream at them for being fussy.

4. Cigarette smokers who throw their butts out the car window

5. Parents who bring 5 year olds to PG-13 movies

6. Telemarketers

7. People who sit in front of you at a football game and ruin your ability to enjoy the tickets you paid good money for because they are drunk and yell repeatedly at the top of their lungs at the opposing team's fans that "SAN DIEGO IS ANOTHER WORD FOR WHALE'S (insert female body part rhyming with angina)!!!" followed by maniacal laughter. Yeah, I'm still bitter.

8. People who take up two parking spaces

9. Store managers who advertise food items on sale and then every single time don't think it necessary to stock up on a little extra of the item so it's actually on the shelf

10. People who argue vociferously on a subject while having absolutely no knowledge to back it up with

11. Grown men in line behind you and your 7 year old daughter who drop the f-bomb every 10 seconds.

12. People who park their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle while staring at the shelves forever instead of pulling it to the side so people can pass by....especially when you know they see you standing there waiting

Yeah....I'm pretty sure I've wasted some precious time in the area of, if not hate, then really really strong dislike. And the funny thing is......all that annoyance has not resulted in people acting any differently. They still double park and cuss and practice ignorance despite all my valuable time spent silently smack-talking them. Hmmm....I'm letting THEIR behaviour affect MY mood and waste MY time? Maybe I'm the ignorant one.