Overcoming Obstacles With Godनमुना

Obstacle #3: Your Hate

Hate consumes everyone and everything in its path. The solution?

When I was younger, my rage-fueled dad beat my mom nearly to death. After he beat her, I heard my dad tell my mom, “I don’t want them anymore.” Those were the last words I heard him speak before we escaped. Those words haunted and tortured me for years, to the point I said to myself, “When I grow up if I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him.”

The solution to all-consuming hate is God’s love, which extinguishes the flames of destruction and floods your broken heart with divine healing.

If there was ever something that got my attention while growing up, it was love. That was something I wished I could have shared with my father, but my definition of love had been so corrupted by the way he had treated my mother, my sister, and me. Then, of course, it was further corrupted by what the street had taught me love was. There was a battle going on inside me between my past experiences and the love that one man showed by going to the cross to die for what the speaker called my “sin.”

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither things present nor things to come, neither height nor depth nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:35-39, MEV

When I heard the speaker at a small Hispanic church speak of Jesus’s sacrifice and love for me, I felt unconditional love for the first time, and I couldn’t hold in my emotions. I felt compassion and hope. This feeling was weird to me because love and compassion were the kryptonite of a street warrior. It was ingrained in me that having feelings was a sign of weakness that would be used against me. But I could not deny the peace I felt when there had been nothing but turmoil. As my grip on the guns relaxed, so did the hate that had held my heart. I didn’t need the guns to protect me anymore. Something about being loved made me feel protected.