Be the Light
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:43-45a
How do you respond to hatred? How do you react to bigotry? How do you combat lies engineered to fuel unrest?
Haitian migrants have moved to our community. No one seems to know exactly how many but the numbers are small. They’ve been here for about 10 months. And now certain people have decided to use the migrants as a political agenda based on hate.
The migrants haven’t caused trouble. They haven’t “drained” our resources. For example, one elementary school in our town has ONE Haitian child. They are working people who are trying to build a new life.
This has caused some people to react in anger. Their hostility mirrors the hate they are attacking. Their loud voices will not change the opinions or hearts of those who attack people they don’t even know. It will just create an escalation that does no one any good.
It came up before and after church yesterday. While some were focused on what we can do to help integrate the Haitian migrants into our community, others were more focused on lashing out at those who have unfairly attacked the migrants.
I am all about freedom of speech and freedom to express your opinion. I am an editorial columnist after all. But there is a way to make your point without inflaming an already bad situation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
I would go a step further and say that hatred begets hatred.
How much more powerful to simply love on the people who are now facing such vocal cruelty? How much better to SHOW how to live a life of faith than to try and argue with people who are filled with hate?
I know. Many of the people who are behaving so ugly are also people who are in church most Sundays. But do we allow them to drag us down or do we, by our own behavior, lift them up?
Jesus told us to love our enemies. He went on to ask what it will accomplish to love those who are good to us? The power, if you will, comes from loving people who aren’t behaving in a loving manner.
We are to be the light. It’s in the Bible. Read it for yourself. Let go of the darkness and pray for those who would do harm. God can do anything if His people will only seek from the depths of their hearts.
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