{"id":14583,"date":"2019-02-05T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T08:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=14583"},"modified":"2019-02-04T23:48:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T23:48:14","slug":"id-rather-die-than","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/grief-loss\/id-rather-die-than\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019d rather die than &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">My heart aches.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Groans inside of me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Sometimes screams and some times weeps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">The tactics they use<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Diabolical<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Each one<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">The primal temptation &#8211; an eye for an eye.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">An ever present crouching tiger at the door.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">I\u2019d rather die than pick up their sword.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">I\u2019d rather lose the battle than fight the way they do, with their diabolical schemes of slander, violence and fear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">The pain and horror of what they do prompts me to recoil<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">a desire to shun, ban, block, lash out is unrelenting.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But I know the antidote is just the opposite <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; to love, to embrace them, and call them, implore them <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">with love into love.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\"> What does it mean to love my enemies?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>____________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Yah. \u00a0This is pretty heavy. Once in a while I feel brave and I will share a personal piece from my private writings. \u00a0This particular piece was the product of a particularly painful, early morning a few months ago, as I wrestled once more with the agony of deep betrayal. \u00a0Sadly compounded by more than a few instances. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">The war inside raged hot. The sorrow and the infection of bitterness from this unresolved grief collided head on with divine love. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">My defiant refusal to respond in kind. \u00a0A refusal to play the game of retributive violence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">It was a sheer act of grace to respond to the divine invitation to choose love as I puked out such ugly grief into the embrace of love itself. \u00a0Love took all of the tempest of my pain. Every last ounce, and not once did it relent. \u00a0Not once did it diminish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">It is my sincere desire, a calling if you will, to live into love. \u00a0I will tell you quite frankly, this loving your enemy thing is so terribly difficult. \u00a0Not because my enemies are worse than others but because of my own inner violence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Ah&#8230; a new enemy to love. \u00a0Indeed a gift.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My heart aches.\u00a0 Groans inside of me.\u00a0 Sometimes screams and some times weeps. The tactics they use Diabolical Each one The primal temptation &#8211; an eye for an eye. An ever present crouching tiger at the door. I\u2019d rather die than pick up their sword. I\u2019d rather lose the battle than fight the way they&#8230;","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[674],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grief-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}