A time to hate? What time is that?

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens...

A time to love and a time to hate..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 8

 

I read this, this morning, and couldn't help but wonder...what are we supposed to "hate?" Hate is such a harsh and difficult word and Jesus tells us love even our enemies (the people we may have previously thought it was OK to "hate").  So, who or what are we supposed to hate?  What would be acceptable, even timely, for us to hate?  Well, I would say that we could hate anything that draws us away from love...such as prejudice, anger, resentment.  We surely can hate those. I hate the way I snap to harsh judgments about people and toss those judgments around in my head, long before I pray to love them.  I hate the selfishness I see in myself--guarding my time like a pot of gold and missing opportunities to share with others.  I may hate those aspects of myself, but that doesn't mean I hate myself.  I use the awareness to pray that those traits diminish in me as the "real" me emerges--I was made to love after all!.  Today, let's spend some time, on an autumn Friday, to consider what God would want us to "hate" in our lives or in ourselves.  It's is probably a short list, in truth, because even the bad things about us can teach us a good deal about love, can't they?  Love, heidi