Article June 5, 2000 Issue

Break the hold of hatred

How to keep from being the target of hostility

By Jacklyn J. Williams

hatred

Have you ever felt as if you were the bull's-eye in a tournament of skilled archers? That's how I felt when a group I was involved in became embroiled in an issue that split us into two opposing camps. Because others knew my view, what felt like a hate campaign was mounted against me by the opposing camp. For a while, the hostility had me reeling. At times I felt as if I had been submerged in a pool of deep water, and running out of breath, I would surface, only to be pushed under again. I prayed earnestly—daily, hourly, and sometimes minute by minute.

Initially my prayers were desperate pleas to be rescued from this nightmare. But then I began to see that begging God to get me out of this conflict was not really overcoming it. Strife is first and foremost something in our thinking, and there's nowhere we can go to get "out" of our thinking. The solution requires a change of thought.

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