When Love Cuts Like a Knife
McManus tells a story in this sixth chapter about a knife he was given by a motorcyclist that attended one of his talks in Southern California. Seems the man was moved or troubled by the talk and later approached the speaker and struck up a conversation. He gave McManus this big knife as a symbol of giving up his life of violence on that day. When pressed to find out the source of this bitterness, he was told that this guy found his wife and his brother in bed one day and killed them both in a fit of rage and has been running ever since.
These kinds of encounters don't happen to everybody. We've seen it all before on television, but until it happens to you, it's not mind-blowing. This must've blown McManus away. Sometimes events like these require "coolness" to keep from being visibly freaked out.
McManus underlines his previous point about how hatred is toxic for the soul.
"The great danger of giving up on love is that we begin to give in to hate."
Can you recall ever dealing with that? I can recall a traumatic event a few years back that tried me. I remember choosing not to hate. I knew that was a bad idea. But it's the presence of love that really drives out hatred the best. Resisting hate can possibly be done with willpower and logic, but the activity of love in motion seems to set hatred a-running.
It's not enough to say, "I forgive you," but it is a choice to love and to act in love. That can be conflicting, for sure; but it is a good thing.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 8, 2007 08:43 AM