Have you ever found yourself believing a lie? I’m not talking about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. I’m talking about coming to the realization at a point in life were you say to yourself, “I based important decisions on something that was untrue.” Whether this had something to do with a moral issue, financial issue, philosophical issue or a relationship, you believed something to be true and made decisions on that belief.
It’s a Reasonable Lie to say, “The Opposite of Love is Hate”
Somewhere in my life’s journey someone taught me that the ‘opposite of love is hate’ and I believed it. It sounded reasonable. So, I went on in life with that idea imprinted on my mind.
It would be years later that I would come to the realization that I was believing a distortion/falsehood. Because when we believe a falsehood, reality eventually becomes disconnected and chaos ensues. We are left wondering, ‘what just happened?’
Often times we don’t realize that we were believing a lie. Entire institutions, philosophies and world views can be based on falsehood or a distortion of reality. Sometimes this is intentionally deceptive, most times it is not.
Truth: The Opposite of Love is SELFISHNESS
We have the freedom to choose to love. When we love, we engage our will to compassionately share in other’s sorrow, sickness, struggle, pain and disappointments. Love allows us to see past shortfalls, mistakes and flaws. Love is sacrificial because to authentically love someone else we must set aside our own rights, desires and agendas to focus on someone else.
I confess that I find it easier to look at myself in the mirror than look into the eyes of someone in distress or worse, someone who may dislike me.
This morning, I was reminded through reading a page from Billy Graham linked to these words of Jesus in John 15:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
You don’t have to be a Christian to understand the true meaning behind that command. If the opposite of love is selfishness, then what does that say about how you engage the world around you?
Do we show love by not hating? Or do we show love by being unselfish?