Hate to Love

I confess...I have this guilty obsession with Chick Flicks! Every since I was little, I have fallen in love with the idea of lovee, at least with the kind of love presented to me in the movies. Even though all Romantic Comedies are basically the same stereotypical stories filled with the cheesy one liners and some crazy adventure that never happens in real life, even though I can basically predict how every story will pan out, I find myself captivated by this ideal love, this fairy-tale ending. I could write a whole post about how the media has twisted my view of romance and relationships, but I shall refrain for I have other matters I wish to discuss... (as I wrote that last part of the sentence, I imagined it in a British accent. So if you wish to do so, reread it now as if it were British haha). Anyways what I really want to talk about, is the love/hate relationship which seems to be ever so present in the recent romances I've seen. What I mean is the couple that ends up in love always seems to start of hating each other, and all of a sudden they realize how madly in love they are. So I always thought to myself, why? Why hate in order to love? Is that really how it works, I just need to extremely loathe some guy so much so that I will finally fall in love and live happily ever after? This doesn't make sense...at least it didn't until I thought deeper...

You can't have something unless you have some kind of opposite to compare it to. We talked about this in one of my classes last year, some philosopher thought of it. If you are confused, I will attempt to explain it in terms of love and hate (emphasis on the word "attempt"). You can't know love or define it unless you know what love isn't. To fully define something means you have to eliminate what it is not to eventually narrow it down to what it is. Hate is what love is not, so you must understand hate to fully appreciate love. The two cannot exist without each other. The idea of love would have a completely different meaning without some knowledge of hate. Imagine if you had never experienced hate in your life and you had only love, would you not then expect love and accept it as ordinary? Would you not then devalue love in a way? Without the horrors of hate, love would be meaningless in a way; we would not be able to appreciate it. I apologize for this whole philosophical idea that seems to be going in circles. I seem to be unable to articulate this concept...basically, everything has an opposite which truly defines what it is not so that we can fully know what it is...

Moving on... I don't think we can truly experience the love of God until we have experienced and recognized hate that comes through our sin. We must hate, to love. We must hate ourselves, we must hate the sin in our lives so much so that we kill it in order to live in Christ. This isn't purely my thoughts or ideas, it's backed up in the Bible. Romans 6:11-12 says "In the same ay, count yourselves as dead to sin but alive in ChristJesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey it's evil desires." Also, in Romans 12:9 it says "...Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." Therefore, since we hate evil and sin is evil, we must hate the sin in ourselves that we may become dead to sin to fully experience life and love in Christ. Here is a little diagram:

hate-->evil-->sin-->dead-->alive in Christ-->love

We must have so much hate and experience it and know what it is to fully appreciate the love that Christ gives through His grace.

I experienced this recently, the whole hate to love thing. I won't go into details, but this blog is not just words to me anymore. It's not just getting my ideas out and not acting and pressing forward. From now on there will be action.

Anyways, sorry if this is a confusing, philosophical topic that is poorly explained. I hope I got the point across... Yay for chick flicks!