I recently started reading a book by Max Lucado called “A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God’s Love.” Lucado has always been one of my favorite Christian authors, and this books is proving to be one of his good ones and just what I was needing to read.
Each chapter is based on a different verse of the famous love chapter of the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. For example, the first chapter talks about how “Love is patient” and the second chapter is about how “Love is kind.”
When we read in 1 Corinthians what love is, it is easy to say to ourselves “I do all those things. I’m patient, I’m kind.” Thinking in terms of what love is it is easy to conclude that we do, in fact, love our neighbors as ourselves. But as I thought about this yesterday, I thought of a poem that looks at the issue from the opposite perspective. Rather than looking at what love is, I’ve been pondering what the opposite of love – that is, hate – is and realizing how sometimes I don’t measure up to the ideal of 1 Corinthians 13 as much as I’d like to think I do.
2/7/12 Update: Linked to dVerse Poets Pub for Open Link Night #30. Go check out the other great poetry.
So here is my poem illustrating what the opposite of 1 Corinthians 13 looks like.
Hate Is . . .
Hate is impatient,
toe tapping, eye-rolling,
in a hurry for instant gratification
Hate is mean,
treating others unkindly,
bullying, and insulting
Hate is envious,
not happy for others’ prosperity,
wanting what others have,
and for them not to have it
Hate is boastful,
puffed up, pointing to self-accomplishments,
not recognizing contributions of others
Hate is not humble,
but is arrogant, filled with hubris
proudly thinking oneself better than all,
pretentious and vain, always vain
Hate is rude,
abusive and insulting, vulgar,
disrespectful, and never caring for others
Hate is self-seeking,
it’s-all-about-me attitude,
selfish and egotistical, self-important
Hate is easily angered,
irritated by the slightest mistake,
hot-headed, unwilling to forgive
Hate keeps a record of wrongs,
every little sin catalogued and indexed,
ready as part of its arsenal of hostility
Hate delights in evil,
revels in rebelling against authority,
is pleased to go its own way
Hate despises truth,
closes its ears to teaching,
refuses instruction and correction
Hate attacks,
harms loved ones and strangers alike,
injures all in its way without care
Hate distrusts,
lacks faith in God or anything,
doubts there is anything good
Hate despairs,
has no hope for a future,
lives in misery and sorrow
Hate gives up,
at the smallest obstacle it gives in,
is defeated by the tiniest tribulation
Hate never wins