Tuesday, March 15, 2011

“So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables…” John 2:15

“Go ahead Jesus, blow your top!”

I really struggled with the readings of today.  They’re not easy.  Perhaps it’s the common thread of anger weaved throughout them.  Discerning for quite some time over them, it’s this one sentence that seemed to resonate within me.  Here’s what I’ve to offer…

We’ve heard this story time and again about how Jesus was angered with the improprieties of the activities taking place within the temple.  He was REALLY pissed.  This was disrespectful.  All this buying and swindling going on infuriated Him.  Hadn’t ANYONE been listening to Him???!!!  Well, there’s much to share on that but it’s not the reasoning for the outburst that tugged at me within, it’s His anger, in and of itself, that impresses me.

I feel confident in sharing that we’ve all experienced a time when we’ve just not felt heard.  Perhaps, like me, there are some of you that have found a particular situation (or two or three or ten-plus) so frustrating that you’ve gone ahead and blown your top, which may not have been a pretty sight!  Probably the most disturbing times I can recall is when my behavior has taken the better of me and I’d tossed all sense of self control to the wind.  We’ve thrown our hissy-fit, purged our frustrations and when all is said and done, there’s a time of quiet reflection.  And during this quiet time, I don’t know about you, but I feel like crap for having had lost control.  I struggle with how weak I am and question what is wrong with me and humbly ask for help.  Now what do I do after making such a spectacle of myself?  There IS a feeling of release though; we can physically and emotionally feel it.  And we’ve spoken so loudly that whatever it was that so frustrated us, what we desperately needed others to hear, could not have helped but been heard!

But with this, I can humbly seek comfort in knowing that Jesus, too, felt those same feelings of human frustration that we can come into battle with from time to time.  And maybe while not condoning the release of feelings in such a way, it is comforting to know that God truly and humanly understands us as we experience them.  And because He truly understands us, He is there to help us stand again and provide for us the strength to do the work He has given us to do in the first place.  Perhaps with a sense of clearer insight and a better suggestion of expression of what it is that we truly do need to share with others.

Thanks be to God for humanity, His never ceasing love, and His perpetual understanding.

 

May you feel God's peace be with you today.

(Mary Lindfors)