Hate & Forgiveness

MLK Jr. quote and a bit of rambling.

(Martin Luther King Jr., as generated by Substack AI filter ‘etching’)

We’re going to open with a quote shared in Mike Woodruff’s The Friday Update newsletter. We’ve most likely seen this a handful of times before, but it sure is worth repeating:

Hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does to the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates.... You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case.... For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.... So, Jesus says love because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

It took me many years to figure out “the forgiveness thing.” I could hold a grudge for a bit—albeit not nearly as long as some folks I know 😶—but eventually you (hopefully) realize that holding onto that anger, that bitterness, that "hate," even that hurt, is really only hurting you.¹

It’s been my experience (both lived and observed) that much of the time, the one holding onto that anger, that bitterness, is the one being hurt even more, while the other person oftentimes has no idea, or worse, doesn’t give a flip one way or the other. They’re cruising along through life without a care the whole time the other person is wallowing in anger or bitterness so deeply, they’re just being sucked into—consumed by—the “hate.”

Then, sadly, they carry that “hate” around on their shoulders, allowing it to grow heavier and heavier until it infiltrates every moment of life. They get so bogged down by the weight of that “hate” that they don’t even know how to truly smile anymore, how to enjoy the sunrise, how to appreciate the birdsong in the backyard, or the gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the trees.

Once mired down in the state of "hate,” the negativity spreads and grows larger, more and more cumbersome, until it’s changing the person’s entire life and wellbeing.

You notice how, when you’re angry, all of a sudden everything starts going wrong. With each "wrong,” you get angrier and angrier, and the cycle just keeps churning—spiraling out of control.

(“Spiraling out of control,” as generated by Substack AI.)

It’s my belief that if people would practice less fetid greed and more forgiveness, our society wouldn’t be quite so… unbalanced (?), deranged (?).

All of that being said, I do understand that forgiveness is a super difficult task to tackle. Even more so than apologizing 🫣, but it’s crucial to a person’s wellbeing, mentally and physically, as well as to that person’s other relationships. Kinda like the whole idea of “don’t bring your work home with you.” (Yah, leave that mess where you found it. 🥸)

Here’s a fun little song for you:

We’ll leave it here. If you’ve got something to share, leave a comment! Thanks so much for taking the time to visit us today. You are appreciated!

God bless!

1. Obviously, I recognize there will be certain things that might not be forgiven, but this little article is just “generally speaking.”