Science supporting Jesus?
There is this idea in our culture that if you are angry then you need to pop off or let of steam. This idea excuses a number of behaviors of people in relationships. I cannot express how many people I hear (myself included) say, "I just needed to get this off my chest" or "I just need to yell and get this anger out." If you have ever thought that popping off in order to release steam then you too have, at least one time, bought into the idea that letting off steam alleviates anger.
And it does. Which is why we do it.
The issue is that letting off steam in this way may make us feel better but it never stops us from having to let of more steam in the future.
Take this little bit from You are Not so Smart. Please note that it takes a bit of set up to get to the interesting stuff, but we have to see the set up before we can get into it. So first the set up:
"In the 1990s, psychologist Brad Bushman at Iowa State decided to study whether or not venting actually worked. He divided 180 students into 3 groups. One group read a neutral article. One group read an article about a fake study that said venting anger was effective. The third group read about a fake study that said venting was pointless. He then had students write essays for or against abortion, a subject about which they probably had strong feelings. He told them the essays would be graded by fellow students, but they weren't. When the students got their essays back, half were told their essays were superb. The other half had this scrawled across the paper: "This is one of the worst essays I have ever read!" Bushman then asked the subjects to pick an activity like playing a game, watching some comedy, reading a story, or punching a bag. The results? The people who read the article that said venting worked, and who later got angry, were far more likely to ask to punch the bag than those who got angry in the other groups. In all the groups., the people who got praised tended to pick non-aggressive activities."
No big shocker there. When we are told by an authority that some behavior is good/not good for us then we tend to heed that advice. While this is no surprise, it might be worth taking note that this also creates feedback loops. If we are told "venting" is good then we will more likely seek out opportunities to do it, and if we are told "venting" is not good then we will seek out other ways to deal with anger.
Now onto the interesting part in which another experiment is created like the first but with a twist, in which the group that was told their essay was the worst essay the grader ever read was then divided in half and and were told they were going to have to compete against the person who graded their essay. "One group first had to punch a bag, and the other group had to sit and wait for two minutes. After punching and waiting, the competition began. The game was simple: Press a button as fast as you can. If you lose, you get blasted with a horrible noise. When you win, your opponent gets blasts. The students could set the volume the other person had to endure, a setting between zero and ten, with ten being 105 decibels. Can you predict what they discovered? On average, the punching bag group set the volume as high as 8.5. The time-out group set it to 2.47. The people who got angry didn't release their anger on the punching bag-their anger was sustained by it."
This may be common sense to you. It may not be. For generations Christianity has taught about loving the neighbor who is sometimes also your enemy. Forgiveness is critical to the life of the Christian. Jesus is said to have spoken words of forgiveness while on the cross.
It is good to see that science is catching up :)
And it does. Which is why we do it.
The issue is that letting off steam in this way may make us feel better but it never stops us from having to let of more steam in the future.
Take this little bit from You are Not so Smart. Please note that it takes a bit of set up to get to the interesting stuff, but we have to see the set up before we can get into it. So first the set up:
"In the 1990s, psychologist Brad Bushman at Iowa State decided to study whether or not venting actually worked. He divided 180 students into 3 groups. One group read a neutral article. One group read an article about a fake study that said venting anger was effective. The third group read about a fake study that said venting was pointless. He then had students write essays for or against abortion, a subject about which they probably had strong feelings. He told them the essays would be graded by fellow students, but they weren't. When the students got their essays back, half were told their essays were superb. The other half had this scrawled across the paper: "This is one of the worst essays I have ever read!" Bushman then asked the subjects to pick an activity like playing a game, watching some comedy, reading a story, or punching a bag. The results? The people who read the article that said venting worked, and who later got angry, were far more likely to ask to punch the bag than those who got angry in the other groups. In all the groups., the people who got praised tended to pick non-aggressive activities."
No big shocker there. When we are told by an authority that some behavior is good/not good for us then we tend to heed that advice. While this is no surprise, it might be worth taking note that this also creates feedback loops. If we are told "venting" is good then we will more likely seek out opportunities to do it, and if we are told "venting" is not good then we will seek out other ways to deal with anger.
Now onto the interesting part in which another experiment is created like the first but with a twist, in which the group that was told their essay was the worst essay the grader ever read was then divided in half and and were told they were going to have to compete against the person who graded their essay. "One group first had to punch a bag, and the other group had to sit and wait for two minutes. After punching and waiting, the competition began. The game was simple: Press a button as fast as you can. If you lose, you get blasted with a horrible noise. When you win, your opponent gets blasts. The students could set the volume the other person had to endure, a setting between zero and ten, with ten being 105 decibels. Can you predict what they discovered? On average, the punching bag group set the volume as high as 8.5. The time-out group set it to 2.47. The people who got angry didn't release their anger on the punching bag-their anger was sustained by it."
This may be common sense to you. It may not be. For generations Christianity has taught about loving the neighbor who is sometimes also your enemy. Forgiveness is critical to the life of the Christian. Jesus is said to have spoken words of forgiveness while on the cross.
It is good to see that science is catching up :)
Sleeping continued...
Recently I posted about surrendering to sleep and I just came across a series of pictures of sleepers from around the world. Below are a couple of my favorites to ponder.
Have you ever been this tired? Where can you or where do you find rest?
Have you ever been this tired? Where can you or where do you find rest?
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| A young Chinese couple wait as their baby sleeps on a display bed as they shop at a department store in Beijing on August 15, 2011. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) |
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| Man asleep in public transport, Lao © Romain Philippon |
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| A baby sleeps while Palestinian women attempt to pass the checkpoint on their way to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on August 12, 2011. (Bernat Armangue/AP) |
Dumb sheep, hidden treasure and Jesus
Quick little parable of Jesus about the Kingdom of God (KoG):
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.'
When reading this parable, you may be like me and consider that the KoG is like this treasure in which we find, sometimes stumbling across it, and when we do we rejoice and give all we have in order to obtain this treasure. Sounds good to me.
Until I realize that nowhere in that interpretation of this parable is there any room for God. In fact, in this understanding of this parable, it is we humans who are doing all the work and God is absent. Which is radically different than what the rest of Jesus' message is about, in which God is the one who is acting first and primary.
Take the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine to find the lost one. We get it. God is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Notice that God is acting first and primary in this common interpretation of this parable. God is the good shepherd and we are the dumb sheep.
Christians have a bit of a self esteem problem sometimes. We are okay with identifying ourselves as dumb sheep and a man who "stumbles" across a treasure. But we are not usually comfortable with identifying ourselves as more.
Back to the parable of the treasure in the field.
What if this parable is God is the one who found a treasure and put that treasure in the field? Then God so delights in this treasure God gives all that God has in order to be one (reconcile) with this treasure? What if humans are God's treasure?
The KoG is like God first found treasure (human beings), then put that treasure in the field (the earth). And then God gave all that God had (God became human and lived, died and resurrected) in order to be one with this treasure (reconciliation with humanity).
In a world (and sometimes in the Church) in which you and I are constantly told we are not good enough, not smart enough or pretty enough, could it be that Jesus is saying to us - God thinks you are good enough.
What if the Good News is that God holds you as treasure?
We are comfortable with the idea that we are dumb sheep, it validates to us what the world says to us. However could it be that a counter-cultural message that is the Good News be that you - yes, you- are God's treasure?
If that is an uncomfortable idea, then perhaps we are beginning to see how some people really thought Jesus was wrong.
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.'
When reading this parable, you may be like me and consider that the KoG is like this treasure in which we find, sometimes stumbling across it, and when we do we rejoice and give all we have in order to obtain this treasure. Sounds good to me.
Until I realize that nowhere in that interpretation of this parable is there any room for God. In fact, in this understanding of this parable, it is we humans who are doing all the work and God is absent. Which is radically different than what the rest of Jesus' message is about, in which God is the one who is acting first and primary.
Take the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine to find the lost one. We get it. God is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Notice that God is acting first and primary in this common interpretation of this parable. God is the good shepherd and we are the dumb sheep.
Christians have a bit of a self esteem problem sometimes. We are okay with identifying ourselves as dumb sheep and a man who "stumbles" across a treasure. But we are not usually comfortable with identifying ourselves as more.
Back to the parable of the treasure in the field.
What if this parable is God is the one who found a treasure and put that treasure in the field? Then God so delights in this treasure God gives all that God has in order to be one (reconcile) with this treasure? What if humans are God's treasure?
The KoG is like God first found treasure (human beings), then put that treasure in the field (the earth). And then God gave all that God had (God became human and lived, died and resurrected) in order to be one with this treasure (reconciliation with humanity).
In a world (and sometimes in the Church) in which you and I are constantly told we are not good enough, not smart enough or pretty enough, could it be that Jesus is saying to us - God thinks you are good enough.
What if the Good News is that God holds you as treasure?
We are comfortable with the idea that we are dumb sheep, it validates to us what the world says to us. However could it be that a counter-cultural message that is the Good News be that you - yes, you- are God's treasure?
If that is an uncomfortable idea, then perhaps we are beginning to see how some people really thought Jesus was wrong.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.