Dissolving Snails

DAILY BYTE

Let’s begin with the first misconception mentioned yesterday, that ‘God does not have any use for our anger.’

There is so much in life to get angry about, including cruelty, injustice, disappointments, suffering, thoughtlessness, human arrogance and selfishness. The list could go on and on.

We all encounter situations where we grow angry, but many of us worry that such emotions are hugely inappropriate for a Jesus follower. So we bottle it up until eventually we can take it no more and explode (or implode). Sometimes we even turn our anger inwardly and use it as a hammer to batter ourselves into spiritual shape. Then our faith, in essence, becomes angry and there is probably nothing more dangerous in this world than an angry religious person.

But anger happens! It is a normal human emotion, and in itself is not sinful. For example, most of us can remember the incident where Jesus became very angry as he cleansed the Temple (see John 2. 13-17). Blocking and bottling our anger – pretending that it isn’t there by ignoring it – means that we are just not being true to ourselves.

Perhaps God would rather have us deal with our anger differently and to learn to express this very normal human emotion in a way that is both healthy and proactive. In this the Psalms can be an excellent guide. Psalm 58, for example, (see today’s focus reading), quite literally smokes and steams at the seams as it calls on God to dissolve enemies like snails on a hot road.

Although we may find these words embarrassing because they express a violence that is not consistent with the Jesus way, we need to remember the movement of the Psalms. Remember that they are prayers moving from us to God, not the other way around. So they are in no way revelations of a violent and hateful God, but rather they reflect something of the violence, hatred and fear that does exist within many human hearts.

Ellen Davis reminds us of two important considerations when it comes to angry Psalms like this, (known as Cursing Psalms). Firstly, that the Psalmist is always empty handed. Note that the Psalmist is never intent on carrying out this violence for themselves, but rather asks God to do it.

Secondly, Davis points out that expressing our rage to God is a healthy way of finding healing and of being able to move beyond blind rage. She tells the story of being betrayed by a friend in seminary, and being left incredibly hurt and angry. One of her professors advised her to shout out some of these Cursing Psalms in chapel at night (or other times when she was alone). Davis records that after a few nights of doing this, her own loud rantings began to sound a little different in her ears, and that she began to detect notes of self-righteousness and pettiness in them.

The Psalms remind us that God can handle our anger and disappointment – that he would rather have us be real about these emotions than live in pointless denial. The lesson of the Psalms is to direct this anger to God rather than puking it up all over others, and then to allow God to slowly transform us. God redirects our anger by helping us to begin being creatively involved in changing what angers us rather than contributing further to cycles of violence and hatred.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Great God of love, there are many examples of injustice and uncaring in this world that should make us angry. Lead us in a way of ‘holy’ anger - to bring our emotions before you in a way that helps us become creatively involved in changing what is wrong rather than further contributing to it. Amen

FOCUS READING

Psalm 58: 6-8a (NRSV)

O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.