Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: anger

  • Psalm 119:158 – Disgusted

    Psalm 119:158 – Disgusted

    I have seen the treacherous and was disgusted,
    because they don’t observe your word.

    What disgusts you? What makes you angry? What infuriates you?

    Sometimes we get the idea that a believe in a loving God and in God’s grace means that we have to be gentle about evil. Being gracious means that we never deal with evil, and can never be angry or confrontational.

    In my younger days I was more confrontational, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten less so. I haven’t come to believe that anger at evil, and action against evil is inappropriate. I have come to believe in choosing my battles, and doing so very carefully. There’s anger against evil, but there’s also being a pest about everyone who does anything that I feel is not quite right. You don’t really want me to do that, because there are a lot of things I don’t like. Fortunately for everyone, I generally don’t think most of those things are my business.

    But there is a time to speak and a time to act. Ezekiel 8 & 9. Ezekiel is shown evil going on in the temple, and then he is shown six men who are sent through the city and are told to put a mark on certain people. We find out that those people are the ones who “groan and lament over all the abominations.” Those who are not groaning and lamenting and put to the sword.

    Harsh!

    Then there is the story of Eli and Samuel. Eli’s sons are taking advantage of their position as priests to take the best portions of sacrifices for their own tables, amongst other things. In 1 Samuel 2 we get the message that Eli’s family will be judged. Why? Because Eli knew about the evil that was going on and did nothing. Samuel, in 1 Samuel 3 gets the “execute” message for this one, the word that the time has come and it’s too late to turn aside the judgment.

    Harsh!

    But there’s also a critical protective side-rail on this. The people condemned are condemned because they are not keeping God’s word. Too often we are judgmental and rebuke people for not doing things our way. Often we confuse our preferences for God’s rules. Beware of anger and disgust at someone for not conforming to your expectations. Your expectations are not the guide.

    The other side-rail is where we fail to ever see anything wrong and choose just sweetness and light. Sweetness and light while ignoring clear evil is itself evil.

    I once heard theologian and author Dr. Deanna Thompson speak about being asked to author the commentary on Deuteronomy in the Belief series, a commentary series written by theologians rather than biblical scholars. Thompson wondered why she, as a feminist, liberationist theologian should write a commentary on Deuteronomy. She didn’t seem to be the obvious choice for the task.

    However, she said that once she had accepted the task, she discovered something important (and I quote from memory). She said, “I discovered that a God without wrath would never liberate anyone.” Let me recommend her commentary. It is a very serious theological reflection on the text.

    I would say that when you do provide a gentle person, or one who hopes to be gentle, to wrath, it can be a very dangerous thing. A truly gentle person is disgusted by what is done to the poor, the needy, the stranger, the foreigner, or anyone who cannot defend themselves.

    Will anything disgust you today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:139 – Zeal

    Psalm 119:139 – Zeal

    I am overcome by my zeal,
    because my enemies have forgotten your word.

    What exactly makes you angry about another person?

    Few of us can claim that we have not been provoked to anger by something about another person. The question is whether or not the cause of our anger is valid. But, you say, we’re talking about zeal. True, but more precisely we’re talking about an emotion regarding other people that is overwhelming.

    So let’s use “zeal,” as I did in the translation. What gets you feeling zealous? What gets you to take action about something?

    And that’s where we can join the Psalmist. For him, what gets him going is that there are people out there who have forgotten God’s word. I wonder what he did about it.

    Often we speak against anger (or sometimes any emotion) as though the emotion itself is bad. I don’t think this is right. I’ll note that when Jesus spoke against anger, it was against anger at your brother that could lead you to doing harm.

    I can get very angry, but my most common approach to interaction is reconciliation. I want to get people talking to one another, or having a dialogue with me, with the hope that we’ll work out some good solution to our problems. I may want to convince them of the (obviously excellent!!!) approaches that I absolutely know are right. Even so, I generally want a solution reached through dialog. One of the things that bothers me most is that so many times people just won’t talk. Either they’ve talked too long already, or the other person is too far off the map for them to engage with.

    And I admit that there are times when these people are right. I have the experience of wasting time talking with people and trying to create meetings and discussions to bring reconciliation when the parties simply weren’t sincerely interested in a peaceful or friendly solution.

    I don’t entirely like the word “balance,” but there is a balance needed here. Or perhaps an integration. Strong emotions exist for a reason. We need to get angry in order to bring ourselves to action. When there is injustice, when people are being hurt, when people’s lives are destroyed, we need to be angry. And if we consider the law as I discussed it a few days ago, as summed up by loving one another, then when we see people hurting others, our zeal should overcome us, because they have forgotten God’s word.

    On the other hand, we find it much easier to get angry at the other people because they annoy us and not because they have forgotten God’s law. Then we like to pretend tat we’re angry about their failure to serve God properly, while it’s really just that they rub us the wrong way.

    What should you be angry about today?

  • Psalm 119:53 – Rage!

    Psalm 119:53 – Rage!

    Rage seizes me because of the wicked,
    Those who abandon your instruction.

    As I read this I remembered one interesting point about reading the Psalms. These are largely a record of what people said in worship of, or in honor of God, and not necessarily instructions for us.

    I immediately want to temper that with another thought: They are, however, an example for us. This poetry is the result of a deep and serious experience with God, and it became part of scripture through long use and recognition of its value.

    There’s a reason many of us react negatively to a thing like this. We are concerned about strong emotions. Rage makes people do things they later regret. Rage can poison your life over time and even kill you. More frequently it kills other people. Rage is dangerous.

    Our Christian response, one we regard as Christlike, is that we need to forgive. Often this need to forgive turns into passivity, a sort of forgiveness before the act which prevents us from reacting. I would suggest that forgiveness is not very real if it involves defanging the original hurt. Forgiveness says, “You hurt me. I’m forgiving you by God’s grace.” Passivity says, “That’s OK. I don’t matter in any case. I’m hear to be kicked around.”

    When the rage is at those we perceive as wicked, there is also a question of witness. What possibility of sharing the gospel, or acting in accordance with the command to “love our neighbors as ourselves” do we have if we let rage at their perfidy overcome us?

    Finally, how sure are we that we correctly recognize true wickedness, true abandonment of the way of righteousness? And again, this is a two-edged sword. Here, instead of fading into passivity because we deplore strong emotions, especially those perceived as negative, we are paralyzed by doubt about a correct course of action. I’m reminded of the military aphorism, mostly said of responding to a tactical situation, “Sometimes a bad decision is better than no decision.”

    There is a time to be angry. There is even a time to act on one’s anger. The key question is to always ask ourselves why we are angry. The time to ask that question is not when you are seized by rage, as the Psalmist describes. At that point, your judgment may be bad, even disastrous. You need to think about what is right and wrong as opposed to what annoys or angers you.

    If you are enraged because somebody doesn’t show you the respect you are due, it is not the same as being enraged at someone who is engaging in violence against those who are helpless. A person who sees a child being starved, beaten, or otherwise abused, becomes angry, and takes effective action is acting morally. Their emotions should be strong.

    On the other hand, most of us have the tendency to see our way of life as normative without ever considering what is actually right or wrong. We more often tend to get enraged by infringement of our personal preferences than we do by actual harm.

    Frequently, this type of rage occurs because we do not fully recognize the other person as a separate entity with a right (morally if not legally) to their own viewpoint and their own habits when they are not harmful to others.

    It is important not to reject strong emotions. At the same time we are beings with both a spiritual nature and minds, and it is important not to let strong emotions become the driver.

    This leads me back to two things I’ve been talking about a great deal in this series: meditation. People who have to respond to difficult situations spend time training to handle them, thinking about how to handle them, even practicing for the eventuality.

    What things in our world should enrage you? What things should you push aside as mere annoyances?