Let the haters hate

I sat in my church seat, wondering if I had come across as a snobbish and entitled person just moments ago. I recalled the frown of the lady. My friend was seated in the middle of the row and I was trying to see if she had reserved one or two seats for my husband or me. As I bulldozed past the worshippers and tried to discern how many empty seats there were, I forgot to say my excuse-me, sorry, or thank you. I had interrupted their worship without apologies.

Previously, I was on the other side of the coin. Some people came fashionably late and expected us to part the way like the Red Sea without apologies. I judged them as rude and obnoxious. Now, I felt judged for how I judged.

Let them be, I felt in my heart. There will be misunderstandings in life, and not all people will like us. I wanted everyone I come across to like me, to be a walking testimony, but I realise that backfires into more people disliking me.

This season, I felt God preparing and armouring my heart to face dislikes, criticisms and trolls. I had this naive mindset that people would not intentionally say or do things to hurt other fellow human beings. But then trolls came to mind.

In Google Dictionary, a troll is an ugly creature depicted as either a giant or a dwarf. It’s an ugly act to post comments online to deliberately upset others. So ugly creature is a good description for people who troll.

Trolling is when someone posts or comments online to ‘bait’ people, which means deliberately provoking an argument or emotional reaction. In some cases they say things they don’t even believe, just to cause drama. In other cases, they may not agree with the views of another person or group online, so they try to discredit, humiliate or punish them.

www.esafety.gov.au/young-people/trolling

I have a sensitive heart and thus I know I would be affected, even by non-trollers’ comments because they disagree in a mean and harsh way. I had a post on another website that has high engagement – mainly from people who disagree in a mean way. I felt misunderstood and scolded for the wrong reasons. However, I decided to close off the comments for my mental health and I felt too drained to argue. Even though any engagement means exposure and traffic, I prefer to keep myself sane.

So I am amazed and even jealous of people like Xiaxue who feed off hate and controversy. If more people are like that, there will be fewer suicide cases among (Korean) celebrities and youths. It might sound incredulous that people can get so affected by online words made by strangers – however, this starkly demonstrates the power of words.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

That’s the reason why I don’t eagerly drive up or pray up the traffic for another website I am writing at. And I am also happy to let Shema Rhema fly under the radar as I write in my world. Thus, sufficient traffic to survive, but not exceeding traffic to thrive.

Of course, I want more traffic to share and touch more lives with my words, but I don’t want people with a mean tongue. It sounds quite impossible. I heard in a recent sermon along this line, that the more influence a person has, the more the enemy will send attacks. The enemy will attack the influence and cause the person to back down. But with prayer, anything is possible! Perhaps my prayer should be God bringing the right people to the websites to be blessed and keep those mean-spirited ones away.

Still, like I said, God has been preparing my heart for dislikes, criticisms and trolls. I don’t want people to dislike or even hate me. However, there will bound to be people who dislike, hate or even call us bigots if we stand for things in the bible and be vocal about it.

David in the bible was hated too.

Those who hate me without a cause
Are more than the hairs of my head;

Psalm 69:4 (NKJV)

Jesus was hated in His earthly time by His people, including the religious leaders. Leaders who are supposed to lead people to Him.

Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.

John 7:6-7 (NKJV)

John 15:18-25 would be the passage I would meditate on when/if people come against me, especially when I stand by biblical values.

The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

…25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law (Ps 69:4), ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

John 15:18-20, 25 (NKJV)

If someone is against you today, know that God is fighting for you against the power of darkness.Ephesians 6:12 says we do not fight against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. I am preaching this to myself too — love and pray for the person coming against you. The person is just a tool that the enemy is using to fight you. Pray that the scales will drop off from the eyes and mind so that the person will see the light and thus walk in the light.

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