yielding to what we hate

Wow. This very notion, yielding to what we hate, came up a couple of months ago.

We have no problem yielding to pleasant things. If we are entering a store and see an elderly person struggling to walk right behind us, it is pretty much a no-brainer for us to yield to them. Hold the door and let them go in.

So easy for us to have compassion for them.

So easy to do a good thing.

What about when we are to yield to something unpleasant, something unglamorous...even something we dislike or hate?

That's tough.

There's nothing positive or blessed about it.

It grates against our inner core to do so.

It doesn't seem to be something that comes up a lot in talk of the Way.

It's pretty common to hear talk about dying to things we don't want to die to.

That's different.

That's dying to things we love: pleasure, status, acclaim, power, control, etc.

Dying to things we love is one thing. Dying to things we hate is another.

Dying to things we hate is a much harder bullet to bite.

Dying to the person who spits venom at us.

Dying when someone in our inner circle snubs or betrays us in some way or many ways.

Dying to what we have snubbed (and sometimes justifiably, in our minds).

Dying to things we have malice toward.



Not eating what I want to eat.

Versus eating what I don't want to eat.

Resisting chocolate cake is different from eating the food we dislike more than any other.



This came to mind, because today I am at a crossroads to die to the thing that I have hated passionately for sixteen months.

It's already been decided. There is no riding off into the sunset on this.

It's beyond the "whatever is good...think on these things" stage. (Aka, rub Jesus' belly [with prayer of course] and there's still a chance it'll turn out positive, favorable or blessed.)

Oh, and I can justify my hate for it. Easily.

Yep, pull out the ol' Bible big enough to choke a mule and be "right" by Followers.

I could plead these emotions to the brunt of Christiandom, and even the brunt of waning American society, and be affirmed.

And don't many of us, Follower or not, largely use that to measure the appropriateness of an approach, attitude or perspective to something?

What ever happened to "I desire obedience more than sacrifice"?