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Anger

Aaron — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:29:39 +0000

Anger.

It’s something we all experience. And if we are honest with ourselves, something we all struggle with from time to time.

I had an encounter with anger this weekend. A stranger gave me some unsolicited parenting “advice”. The tone and inappropriateness of her comments set off a feeling of anger within me.

Soon after that experience, I sat down and read these words from Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy on the subject of anger…….

In its simplest form, anger is a spontaneous response that has a vital function in life. As such, it is not wrong. It is a feeling that seizes us in our body and immediately impels us toward interfering with, and possibly even harming, those who have thwarted our will and interfered with our life.

Anger embraced is, accordingly, inherently disintegrative of human personality and life. It does not have to be specifically “acted out” to poison the world. Because of what it is, and the way it seizes upon the body and its environment just by being there, it cannot be hidden. All our mental and emotional resources are marshaled to nurture and tend the anger, and our body throbs with it. Energy is dedicated to keeping the anger alive: we constantly remind ourselves of how wrongly we have been treated. And when it is allowed to govern our actions, of course, its evil is quickly multiplied in heart-rending consequences and in the replication of anger and rage in the hearts and bodies of everyone it touches.

Anger.

Experience it. Feel it.

But then let it go.

Don’t embrace it. Don’t keep it alive.

Don’t let it poison you and those around you. Don’t let it multiply or replicate.

(image by The Loopweaver)

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What I’m Reading

Aaron — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:04:03 +0000

here’s a quick look at what i’m reading…….

just wrapped up Groundswell today // a must read for anyone interested in “winning in a world transformed by social technologies

working my way through The Divine Conspiracy // really learning from this Dallas Willard masterpiece. In this book, Willard thoroughly explores the true nature of the teachings of Jesus

about half way through The Dip // great so far, like all of Seth Godin’s stuff

John Maxwell’s latest, Put Your Dream to the Test, is on my Kindle iPhone app // still haven’t met a John Maxwell (@johncmaxwell) book that I didn’t like

What books are on your nightstand / Kindle / iPhone?

(image by darkmatter)

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Re-Visioning

Aaron — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:52:43 +0000

When I was younger I had an incorrect view of God. My view of God is now correct, but still incomplete.

An incorrect view is to not see God as loving. An incomplete view is to not fully understand how loving he is.

An incorrect view is to not see God as powerful. An incomplete view is to not fully comprehend his power.

An incorrect view is to not see God as gracious. An incomplete view is to not fully fathom his amazing grace.

Incorrect & incomplete. There is a big difference.

Dallas Willard says this about one’s view of God in The Divine Conspiracy…..

Central to the understanding and proclamation of the Christian gospel today, as in Jesus’ day, is a re-visioning of what God’s own life is like and how the physical cosmos fits into it. It is a great and important task to come to terms with what we really think when we think of God.

Willard goes on to include this description of God by Adam Clarke…….

the eternal, independent, and self-existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence; he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences; infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made; illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only by himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just and right, and kind.