Frustrated?

Being a kid can be frustrating. No longer being seven, I sometimes forget that Second-graders have real problems, too. I was reminded of this yesterday when, in the course of correcting my son's behavior, I asked him if anything had been going on at school.

My son is a passionate boy. He's quick to love, but can also be quick to anger. So as he was telling me about some playground issues, my heart hurt, but I was also worried that he might let those passions get the better of him. Now that he's old enough to understand these things, I've been working on remembering my role as Dad is as much teacher as it is administrator. More so! So instead of admonishing him to watch his step, I asked him to pray when he was frustrated.

Remember, I told him, Jesus had -- and has -- more reason to be angry with us than we've ever had to be mad at somebody else. He was beaten up, and mocked, and finally killed. And He is God. He could have freed himself of those chains. He could have asked all the angels in Heaven to teach his antagonists a lesson. But He didn't. In fact, even as He hung on that cross and watched as soldiers divided His clothes among themselves, he lifted His eyes to God and said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

God knows we can get angry and frustrated. He understands. So who better to ask for help, when it all becomes too much to try and control our anger?

So, I told my son, pray. God gets it. He can help you. Just ask. "Oh," said my son, and almost moved me to tears. "I sort of do that sometimes now."

I am grateful he knows that God is there, and listening. And I pray he remembers as he goes through life that God understands his anger. And I pray that, as often as I need it, I remember, too.

Why Does the Cross Make People So Mad?

Two days ago, as millions of us remembered the horrific tragedy in 2001, news began cropping up about an atheist group seeking to eliminate a symbol of that day: the 17-foot cross pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center. The monument, they say, gives unequal representation to Christians.

But what I found most telling were the words of David Silverman, the President of American Atheists, who

contends that atheists are experiencing horrible physical reactions after seeing the rubble cross, such as “inter alia, dyspepsia, symptoms of depression, headaches, anxiety, and mental pain and anguish.” 

This does sound a lot like a sickness, actually. But I think Mr. Silverman is perhaps misdiagnosing the cause.

Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

When I first read what this man said, I thought, how ridiculous! Give me a break! But isn't it possible that, in fact, they are having these feelings of sickness? Heart sickness, maybe? Sickness of the soul? That, even though they refuse to recognize the Truth in their minds, something in their Spirits know they have denied the Hope of Jesus Christ?

As believers,  our first reactions to this sort of thing are often annoyance or anger. But instead, should we not have compassion for the Spiritually diseased, who refuse to even acknowledge their symptoms?  Remember, Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17)." 

Pray for these men and women, that the Love, Mercy, and Grace of Jesus Christ be made manifest, and that His blessings bring them to Him.