Meditate | Grumpy God?

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article! Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways…My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity…Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, and spend My anger upon you…My eye will not spare, Nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways…The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness…They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like refuse; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not satisfy their souls, nor fill their stomachs, because it became their stumbling block of iniquity…For the land is filled with crimes of blood, and the city is full of violence…I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled.

They have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger…Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity”

Ezekiel 7: 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19, 23, 24; 8: 17, 18.

I’ve been reading the Prophets while holding the question, “How is this a communication from a loving God?” in my mind. Let me tell you—that loving communication seems very well buried at first read in Ezekiel 7 and 8.

What irks me about these chapters most is how it seems like God has an anger problem. I’m put off by this because I have anger issues myself that I’ve been working on for years. Holding these passages in contemplation I realize I’m bitter because I am getting better at practicing self-control and here God looks like he’s got none whatsoever! What’s going on?

Click to read more ...

Anger

Wystan uses a sermon of Chuck Blair's as a starting point to speak about the frustration and anger she holds around caring for their handicapped child. She writes about where she finds solace in the midst of life's uncontrollable events and her progress in moving through pain. -Editor

(This article was first written as a blog on Livestream for New Church Live – the writer wanted to share it in support of others who care for very special needs people. What follows is just a part of the picture, thankfully. Bless you all.)

I turned on New Church Live on Livestream a few weeks back looking for a church service, not really for the message, but because I wanted to hear our daughter (a dorm student at ANC high school) sing with her choir. But I think that the Lord had me tuning in to hear the minister Chuck Blair’s message.

Chuck spoke that morning about anger and forgiveness. A lot of the examples he used were war-like, and, it seemed to me, very oriented to a male way of thinking about anger and revenge. I am lucky enough to say that I can’t even relate to the idea of loss of a loved one by violence – this is so far from my experience it doesn’t seem real.

But I live and breathe with anger and resentment just barely managed — and for me the language, the texture of anger is the slow, tiny, repetitive efforts to take care of my son, who is profoundly mentally handicapped; to get him to wash his hands, to brush his teeth, to clean up his poop and pee messes, day after day, after day, after day.

Click to read more ...