Monthly Archives: May 2021

Anger: Part of an Integrated Package

Posted on May 13, 2021 by salooper57

So, here is one thing we need to understand. Anger is integrated into the system – your system. You can’t go and pull it out while leaving everything else in place. When I was a kid, TVs had vacuum tubes. On Thursday, when your TV stopped working, you took off the back, pulled the tubes, went down to the drug store (where they had a tube tester), found the bad one, replaced it, and were watching My Three Sons that evening.

We might think that we can do the same thing with anger: just pull it out of our lives like one of those tubes. We want to stop being angry but we don’t want anything else to change. But that won’t work. Here’s why
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Handling Anger: The Beachhead

Posted on May 12, 2021 by salooper57

(This is part 2 in a short series of posts on handling anger responsibly.) Anger has a wide blast radius. All of us are affected by it and some of us are controlled by it. It causes us to do … Continue reading →

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Handling Anger: The Begotten Consumes the Begetter

Posted on May 11, 2021 by salooper57

(This is the first of several posts regarding anger and what to do with it.) I believe we were living through a pandemic before any of us had heard of COVID-19. Like COVID, this malady is communicated from person to … Continue reading →

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You Can’t Argue with That

Posted on May 8, 2021 by salooper57

We are the most argumentative people in generations. We now have technological pillboxes from which we, unseen, can send a volley of argumentation at our opponents while remaining shielded from their counterarguments. At the same time, there are fewer listening posts than ever before—and most of those we do have are abandoned. We simply never have to hear what our opponents are saying.

Contrast that with the Emperor Antonius, adoptive father to the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was said not only to tolerate frank opposition, but to be “pleased if somebody could point to a better course of action.” Such openness to reason has always been uncommon. In today’s climate, it is astonishing.
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My Sheep Follow My Voice

Posted on May 6, 2021 by salooper57

In John 10:6, Jesus uses a “figure of speech” (Greek, ) one that requires insight to understand the point. We may miss that point, perhaps not from lack of insight, but from lack of cultural familiarity. Jesus’ teaching here is clothed … Continue reading →

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The Biggest of the Big Three: Love

Posted on May 2, 2021 by salooper57

Here is the sermon, The Love of Your Life, from 1 John 4:7-12.

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How to Pray High-Impact Prayers

Posted on May 1, 2021 by salooper57

If someone universally acknowledged as a modern-day saint prayed regularly for you, what would he or she pray? We know what we would want them to pray: that our children would fare well, that we would have enough money to … Continue reading →

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