I thought the relation between anger and depression was insightful.
The bottom line is that the catalyst for both anger and depression is often the hurts we experience at a very deep level…experiencing feelings of being misunderstood, rejected, unimportant, powerless, and even unlovable. Out of those feelings (and the thoughts that led to them) we can lash out at someone else, get upset with ourselves, withdraw from others in isolation, or try to avoid the hurts altogether with some compulsive behaviors that only complicate our situations.
We’re using our own simple 40day guide provided by the denomination, which I had some fingerprints in terms how it turned out. 🙂 These extras are great.
(Part of) why I like the liturgical calendar
I see the liturgical calendar as way of shaping the way I experience time, and allow the themes from the calendar from the life of Jesus to reorder my scattered thoughts.
I would argue (in addition to Michael’s points) that how we celebrate time deeply shapes us as people, and increasingly, American holidays are shaping us as sentimental consumers, and the Christian year shapes us around the person and work of Jesus Christ. Case in point, Spencer points out that no church he was part of when he was younger ever chose Pentecost over Mother’s Day. To put it baldly, we exalt the nuclear family over the Holy Spirit’s work in the church, and part of the reason is that, for most evangelical Christians, Mother’s Day is an obligatory holiday and Pentecost feels optional.
Book Discussion: "Seeking the Identity of Jesus"
The season of Lent has always been a season when I revisit Jesus identity again . and also what it means for me and our world. Pause and slowly revisit the following 9 propositions 🙂
1. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew.
2. The identity of Jesus is reliably attested and known in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
3. The entirety of the canonical witness is indispensable to a faithful rendering of the figure of Jesus.
4. In order to understand the identity of Jesus rightly, the church must constatly engage in in the practice of deep, sustained reading of these texts.
5. To come to grips with the identity of Jesus, we must know him as he is presented to us through the medium of narrative.
6. The trajectory begun with the the NT of interpreting Jesus’ identity in and for the church has continued through Christian history.
7. Because Jesus remains a living presence, he can be encounterd in the community of his people,the body of Christ.
8. Jesus is a disturbing, destabilizing figure.
9. The identity of Jesus is something that must be learned through long-term discipline.
A hybrid Malaysian taking preparatory steps for this year.
2009 Global Mission Lenten Series
This looks really good.
It wasn’t long after I arrived in Senegal 15 years ago, that I began to have new experiences that have shaped my understanding of Lent today. For example, learning Pulaar, (spoken by the Fulani), I was introduced to the daily ritual of greetings. How are you? How is your day, or morning, or evening? How is your health? How is your tiredness? How is your family? How are your children? How are your parents? How are the people of your village? How is your work going? After a few months, just as I was getting used to these questions and various responses, I heard something I hadn’t heard before, “Mbad-daa e Korka?” What did that mean? So I asked, and I learned that this was a greeting used during the month of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, and it meant “How are you doing with your fast?” It seemed to me that everyone was asking everyone that question, and so I started to include it in my greetings. When I did, sometimes instead of getting the regular “Peace only” response, people asked me “Ada hoora?” – Are you fasting? Hmm? Scratch my head. No. Immediately, the arguments against fasting came to my rescue, but God saved me from foisting on my Muslim friends all the reasons why I wasn’t fasting and made me realize that all the question demanded was a yes or no answer.
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