I’ve learned something in recent weeks about just how powerful hate can be.

Often times we think that the most dangerous forms of hate come in bitterness and resentment or sometimes anger. But as of late I have realized that hate is a gateway, and that if you hate something just enough – eventually you will become it.

I’ve never experienced that type of contempt. The kind where after so long the obsession and infatuation bled through into my character, until it actually became my character.

In more ways then one it is frightening. Scary how so suddenly we can become something that we once despised so much.

I never truly understood why there was so much focus put onto forgiveness. At first I attributed it towards a spiritual thing, something that must be done because God calls us to do it. But I am learning the hard way that the reason forgiveness is so important is because we will become what we hate.

The obsession and meditation that comes with hate isn’t what is dangerous. It is the idea of hate itself, and the longer it sits on our brains and permeates our minds, the more it seeps into our subconscious and begins to take control of our lives.

Hate is like alcohol. At first, a few drinks are fine, but the longer you allow alcohol to be in your system the more it begins to control what you do, and the longer that hate remains on your mind the more you become just like the very thing that you once despised so much.

It isn’t something that happens suddenly or overnight. It is slow, very methodical and very deliberate – with only one outcome. It will leave you looking in the mirror at a face you recognize as one you used to despise so much.

It may seem morbid or gruesome, but the simple fact is that you will become what you allow yourself to hate.