I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
With all that was going on, and the feelings that I have been processing through, I felt God asking me to work this one up. Part of this comes from a conversation at Celebrate Recovery (no details, just that we were talking about making amends and forgiveness, a couple of the chapters cover these) and part from some videos that I own.
We started off with an object lesson that included the students to take an Alka-Seltzer tablet in their mouth and then put 7up in there and try to hold it for as long as possible. Anger is like that isn’t it? It cause us foam at the mouth or we try to hold it in. When we do let it out we create a mess and it leaves a bad taste in our mouthes. Paul said in Ephesians, “In your anger, do not sin.” (remember that sin is separation from God).
What are we looking for?
We want to be free, healthy, and whole. We don’t want what somebody else did to you to determine your life.
So how do we react when somebody does something to us?
Revenge becomes our only hope, so we really aren’t free. Revenge is saying to God, “I don’t trust you to take care of this the way I want it to end.” However, revenge doesn’t satisfy.
So Forgiveness is the answer. The Cross is God’s sign of forgiveness to us. So let’s see how Jesus deals this.
Mark 3:1-6
Here Jesus – gets angry
– identifies with an injustice and not a selfish desire
– anger leads to an act of healing
Anger is the body’s reaction to your will being blocked.
People’s anger usually has nothing to with the person to whom it is vented.
The problem isn’t anger, but what we do with it.
What does your anger do?
Jesus in the “Sermon on the Mount.”- Matthew 5:38-41
Jesus quotes from Leviticus about an eye for an eye. Here’s a little background on that passage: There was so much revenge in Genesis to Exodus. Anyone who sinned against Cain would get back 7 times (Genesis 4:15) and later Lamech talks about being avenged seventy time seven (Genesis 4:23-24). So revenge had an escalating quality. You do something to me and I’ll do something worse. This went on until Moses when he limited what could be done. Don’t do more than was done to you. Now Jesus says to let God handle it and love the wrong doer.
So channel anger into healing.
So Paul talks about this many times. Here are a few: Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32 and Romans 12:16-21 (and Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21-22).
In Celebrate Recovery, we learn to do an inventory of our hurts, habits, and hang ups. We search for where our anger comes from. Do you have the courage to search where your anger comes from? Do you want to be free?
There will always be things to complain about. People will always need your help.
Which will you choose? Being a slave to anger? or the freedom to heal?
An interesting thing has taken place while away from Facebook, I have been reading. Not just the blogs, although since my netbook has been underperforming, I have been reading books. I finished Youth Ministry 3.0 and am over halfway through The Year of Living Like Jesus. Wow, and I have rested! So I haven’t fallen asleep while reading either. Can’t wait for The Gospel According to Moses. That looks good too.
I may do a more detailed post later, but for now this will have to suffice. I am also planning a detailed letter that outlines my decisions that lead me to leave Gaylord Community Church. That will be circulated to a few that I think need to know why, and if more want to know I’ll answer the questions or pass the letter onto whoever wants it. However, it hasn’t been written yet. I hope to have it done by the weekend.
I do want to address the rumor that I favored one side over another. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I want to say this, I am, besides a very deeply spiritual Christian, I am also a researcher. Once past my emotional responses, I look very closely at all the independent data possible to make a decision. In this case, I prayed fervently, talked to independent people, and looked over evidence. I didn’t just get the information from one side. Not to mention having served on previous churches boards that, incidentally, dealt with complaints from the congregation about the staff or the pastor, I made my decision. It was a painful decision to make, but I couldn’t go along with what had happened.
I am, or at least I thought, very good friends with people who stayed at GCC, so when I left Gaylord Community Church for Life Church, I was shocked to hear that I left because I was in the “Scheer clique.” Obviously, those people don’t know me as well as I thought, and to hear these things was very hurtful. I follow Christ, and not any particular pastor. I made this decision out of prayerful contemplation, scripture, reason, and experience. The Wesleyan quadrilateral of defining your faith.
Anyway, things, on a personal level have spun out of control for me. I get mad about the rumors between the churches, and about me. Also I have lost at least one friend on Facebook because of this split. In fact, I told Mary and another friend of mine that I haven’t felt this heartbroken with this decision, since my first girlfriend in college broke up with me, and since I don’t intend to revisit that time again. I am leaving Facebook stay out of the dueling “yea! I love my church” status messages.
I had also considered leaving Life Church briefly, for a local UM Church, i.e. the Boyne area, where I know the pastor as well. However, leaving Facebook will have to suffice for now. If some of the family strain gets too much, I may still go there, but for now, I will attend Life Church, and because I disagree with the decision and process that went into that decision, I can’t go back to GCC in good conscience.
I will always be friends with those who have opted to stay and I love each one of them. It will be awkward to meet at times, but that will fade. I will not harbor any resentment. That would be unGodly.
So until the smoke clears…
Caritas,
Jeff Lutz
This was cross posted from my Facebook notes.
The first major change in a long time has finally happened, the old house sold. Mary and I signed the papers on Friday (8/6/10) declaring the house is no longer ours. We now just own one house, the one in Boyne Falls. I praise God for that. With that bit of news, there are some negative things that have been happening, as well. I won’t list them here, they are related, and they have been rather heart breaking, in the figurative sense of the word, but change is happening.
It has been a while since I shared about my spirituality. The short version is that I “sense” more than I used to, and reading the Bible has become more revelatory than I used to know. In this case, despite a few of the negatives that have shown up, I got the impression that Jeremiah 30:17 is in play, but only if people will do what Matthew 5:23-24 says. I’m struggling with this, because I feel the need to go to some of the heart breakers and talk to them, because they did hurt me. So, I have been praying. Now, I’m not sure when an answer to this prayer will come, but I heard three pastors a few months ago, that I think God was speaking through, to me, in preparation for this moment.
1. Rob Bell preaching about a Sacred Waste
2. Brian Zahnd preaching about Salt and Light
3. Duane Van Der Klok preaching about Mega Faith
I know that I will have to pour out an offering in figurative terms. That I will have serve those I pray for.
That I will not see an answer right away, even though it looks like nothing will ever happen.
In my RSS reader were these posts from some bloggers that I read. The first was from Don Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz. His post about Let Story Guide You had this excerpt that was rather reminiscent of events here, as of late.
The other problem with real life is it’s hard to tell whether or not you are the bad guy. We all believe we are the good guy or that our words and actions are justified. The other day I lost my temper at a stranger. I really let them have it. I still feel like they deserved it. It was a bully situation in which somebody was being threatened. But I went too far, honestly. I pretty much said things that person will be thinking about for years. I went for the jugular and put him in his place. Or perhaps it went in one ear and out the other, I don’t know. But regardless, I was thinking about that today, and realized that the things I said could be placed word for word into a film in which the character that said it got “what they deserved” at the end and nobody would really care. Stink. Can’t believe I said those things.
I worry about my temper at times when I need to confront things, because I don’t want to end up in this situation. Besides, when I do get angry in an argument, I can’t think clearly enough to make sense. So to combat this I pray. Of course, the book study that I happen to be reading online from theologian Scot McKnight is Psalms. The post that I read about has been Psalms 25:17-22. Here’s his commentary:
The psalmist’s inner heart is in need of relief (v. 17); the psalmist is in trouble and wants forgiveness (v. 18); the psalmist then thinks of his enemies and wants deliverance (v. 19). So he prays for deliverance (20-21).
And then suddenly, the psalmist moves to the People of God: redeem Israel (v. 22).
Read more here.
So the Psalmist is praying just the way I have been feeling, and for the resolution that I believe that we are looking for. That is my prayer tonight…Lord, give strength to reconcile without the anger, heal my broken heart, heal your church, and give me rest. Amen.
My rest is the only thing I can control. That is the one thing I will work on is resting. For these changes have been exhausting.
