Don't Let Hate Spoil Your Great!

As people most of what we experience involves our emotions. We experience love, hurt, anxiety, stress, anger, jealousy, happiness, joy, and a whole lot of growing experiences that we will endure and repeat as we travel through this thing called life. We can’t begin to comprehend the spiritual breadth of life with just our minds. It’s an experience entangled and weaved in our very nature.

The spiritual world creates situations and circumstances in the physical world that prompts us to evolve. And evolving is what we sometimes call maturing. The spiritual element of life awakens us to what we need to see; it nudges us further along our path, and brings us closer to what we are to become.

How we feel about ourselves is determined a whole lot about what we see around us, and the people we observe and associate with. We compare and adjust to what we believe is the determining factor of what we consider to be our own ideals.

But each coincidence, each little adjustment, each little setback, and each stepping stone along our path, directs us to become aware of something more, something deeper, and a realization of “God is always in control”.

Some might not be able to see the spiritual complexities of what we are destined to be. They look at us from the outside, and determine what we are to be. They may even attempt to caution us, or deter us to what they believe our worth is. Their interpretation of “ourselves” can magnify a shame within us that can threaten our self-stability. If we aren’t careful, we may find ourselves wanting their qualities, so called successes, or possessions. When we do this, we’re looking outside of what God intended for us. We’re comparing ourselves to someone else. We’re constantly believing in another person’s view of us, and disbelieving in ourselves. We look in the mirror and dislike or skin, our hair, our size, our build, even our windows to the world.

But, brothers and sisters, God alone has already determined our destiny. He made us all special.

Song of Solomon 1:5-6 states: “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.”

My message today is: Don’t let Hate Spoil your Great!

The Great King Ramses II, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Shonda Rimes, Michael Jackson, Queen of Sheba- Makeda, Mae Jemison, Misty Copeland, and President Barak Obama.

These are: King, Entrepreneur, Producer, Writer, Singer/composer, Queen, Scientist, Ballerina, and President of the United States.

What could all these great black people have in common? I’ll tell you.

They all had haters, blockers, discouragers, non-believers, controls, and restraints.

Leviticus 19:17 states: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.

Just in case you didn’t know, or just in case you hadn’t heard, or just in case you missed that class; “haters are gonna hate”.

This simply means that people who don't like you will always find a reason to dislike you, no matter what the reason may be. It’s a trend that’s been around from the beginning of time as we know it. Whether we like it or not, it does carries a bit of truth, because there will always be someone around who just don’t like you.

It’s not anything you’ve done. It’s not anything you’ve said. They just don’t like you! Maybe they don’t like the way you wear your hair, or because you walk like this, or talk like that. These people have appointed themselves to be one of your haters for some unknown or unwarranted reason.

But what if you thought of it this way? What if a hater is just a person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success? So rather than be happy, they make a point of finding a flaw or two in that person. We know, no one is perfect, but somehow we let these little things bother us. We let haters get in our head.

Brothers and sisters, Hating on someone can just be a deeply embedded hate for one’s own self. It’s not exactly jealousy although it could be in some cases.

But usually the hater doesn’t really want to be the person or to be like the person he or she hates; rather the hater wants to knock the person they hate down a notch. And believe me; they will keep at it until they find a way to be sure you stay down. They want to convince you that you are somehow inferior.