Vomit on you and me

I get angry. I know it is not something that is becoming of a minister, but I do. I get angry at things like Sin and injustice. I also get angry at people doing a half ass job or when I do not  meet my own deadlines. 

There are a number of people who have given me advice on what to do when I get angry at another. Some tell me to lean into that anger. Others tell me to forgive. Others tell me to ignore it. Others say anger at another is really just anger in myself displaced. 

What I am learning is that when I am angry I am quick to pop off and spew my anger on another. It is not healthy and I have gotten much better, however I can use my words to really cover someone with my anger. 

The truth is that when I have done this in the past, I feel better for a little bit then I look down and see that in spewing my anger at another I covered myself in my own hate vomit. I have covered another and myself with sickness and toxicity.

And you know, it takes a while to get all that cleaned up. 

Will Rogers: Time Traveler

Will Rogers is one of those people that was seen to represent the common man. Growing up in Oklahoma, not known for being the most flashy of states, Rogers became a voice that rang true in his time as well as ours. Here are just a few of these timeless pearls of wisdom from "Oklahoma's Favorite Son":

Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.

The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the dryest little spot. But he dident know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands. They saved the big banks but the little ones went up the flue.

When the Judgment Day comes civilization will have an alibi, "I never took a human life, I only sold the fellow the gun to take it with.

Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Why are they called denominations?

There is a guy named Peter Rollins who is brilliant and is also someone who I have a very difficult time understanding him. It is not because of his accent (he is Irish*) but because he is a philosopher and I am not. In a conversation I heard between him and Science Mike and Michael Gungor and Peter Rollins said something that hit me.

From what I recall, Rollins was talking about metaphor. A metaphor does both describe and negate that description simultaneously. For instance, if you described someone as having a heart of gold, you are both saying something about that person's heart while at the same time saying their heart is not a block of metal. Metaphors both affirm and negate. 

The next step of the conversation was about how all language about God is metaphor. When we say God is father we are both saying something and negating something. God is like a father, but God is also not a literal father. This is the beauty of language about God, it is both helpful and limited. It gives us insight into something but it also leaves us a little lost. 

We Christians have had a habit of elevating one half of the equation while dismissing the latter half. That is to say, we like the side of language that affirms (God is father) but do not like the side of language that negates (God is not father). Rollins points out that the role of religion is to move people to embrace that which is unknown and so religion needs to elevate the side of language that negates in order to help us mature. 

Rollins pointed out that he likes that Christian divisions are called "denominations" - they are groups that de-name. Can we be a denomination that embraces the power of language in it's fullness? Can we be a people that is at ease with both what God is and what God is not? Can we be a people who are courageous enough to look at a situation that is done in the name of God and stand up and say in fact this action is not of God? Are we mature enough to see that God is and at the same time God is not? 

Maybe this is why they are called denominations. They are groups that are trying to be mature enough to embrace the fullness of God, and not just the parts of God we can name.

* I originally identified him as Australian. I apologize to all Australians and Irish and all thinking people.