My friend Clint the Therapist told me that anger is a surface emotion.  He said that anger is like an iceberg; you can see 10% of it, but the real causes of what you see are below the surface.  I began my Lenten journey through the prophets yesterday.  Their God is very angry.

I’m accustomed to this kind of God.  He is drawn as a figure so holy it’s as if he has no choice but to demonstrate his wrath.  Fear is his method for inspiring worship and faithfulness, because he knows what you did, and you better make things right between you and him before the sun sets, lest you die in your sleep and receive the punishment you deserve. Jonathan Edwards still plays well.  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in many ways, is the sermon upon which American Christianity was founded.

God is holy.

I am not.

I get that.  It makes sense.  Perhaps he is wrathful with a purpose.  Okay, that fits into most theological frameworks.  But what if anger is a surface emotion for God too? Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the olden days, when your friend got that sweet dual cassette player that offered high-speed dubbing? That device meant you could grab all of your buddies’ music and copy it onto 90 minute blank cassettes with noise reduction technology.  You and your friends stole music like nobody’s business.  No one cared.

FFWD a couple years to a time when Napster became the dual-cassette deck of the world Read the rest of this entry »