#angry with god

[momentsbeforemass]

The “unless” list

Some people are angry with God.

It’s one of the saddest things. Not because they’re bad people for being angry with God. But because of what they went through to get angry with God.

When someone is angry with God, it’s a sign of someone who is hurting.

Someone who is angry with God needs our love and understanding. Because something terrible has happened in their lives. Whether it’s death or divorce, illness or financial loss, whatever it was hurt them. Deeply.

No matter how solid you and I think our faith is, we can set ourselves up to be angry with God. All it takes is an “unless list.”

You see it in the Gospel. Thomas doubts the Resurrection, then launches into his “unless” list.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands. Unless I put my finger into the nailmarks. Unless I put my hand into his side. I will not believe.”

Translation – “Unless it happens my way. Unless I get everything I want. Unless it meets my expectations.”

Thomas is setting himself up to be angry with God. Just like you and I do. Whenever we have an “unless” list.

The only difference between Thomas and us? Thomas is open about his “unless” list. You and I aren’t open about it. Usually, you and I don’t even tell ourselves about our “unless” list.

Instead, we make assumptions about how things have to be. Then pour concrete around them.

And get angry when the world doesn’t conform to our unspoken “unless” list.

Think about it. We cut off friends and family who treat us like that. We quit jobs when we have bosses like that. That’s how miserable it is to have someone angry at us because we didn’t check the boxes on their secret “unless” list.

The only thing more miserable than being around someone with a secret “unless” list? Being someone with a secret “unless” list.

It’s a sure-fire way to ruin any relationship. Including your relationship with God.

Putting an “unless” list into your relationship with God – telling God how things have to be, putting human limitations on the Almighty – is a recipe to be angry with God. Because God doesn’t always do things our way.

God always provides. But sometimes, instead of delivering us from the problem like we want, God gives us the strength to get through the problem.

God wants to bless us. But sometimes we miss the blessing, because God didn’t do it our way.

God has nothing but the best in His heart for us. But we miss out on God’s best, every time we insist on the list.

It’s time to throw some things out. Starting with our “unless” list.

Today’s Readings

[fakakta-art]

Jason: *terrified, thinks he's gonna die* Bruce: *used to carrying Dick around like a ferret* small child. so small.

[polarsirens]

rage

[2asuccess]

Anger with God

Is it okay to be angry with God?

Is it okay to be angry with God? With Elijah fully fed and rested, God initiated a conversation with Elijah about his emotional state, and Elijah expressed his anger at God (see I Kings 19:10). The Lord’s response was not to argue with Elijah; rather, He showed Eliah Hi power through wind, earthquake, and fire, but spoke to him in a gentle whisper. He commanded Elijah to anoint two new kings and…

[gay-otlc]

If you don't respect straight trans men I'll kill you btw

[demigods-posts]

luke fumbling in recruiting percy has to be one of his greatest failures. a beautiful thing the show does regarding luke and percy's relationship is building rapport between them through shared moments like settling into camp, eating meals together, but especially through swordfighting lessons. the swordfighting scene at the beginning of episode 8 not only reveals that percy and luke already share similar beliefs about the fear-based system the gods have cultivated, but it's clear the conversation stays with percy when he fights ares and later calls out zeus on his waning skills as a father and a king. however, luke's plan fell through the moment percy learned that the winged-shoes were meant to drag him to tartarus. not only that, but the shoes nearly killed grover, a friend percy cared for deeply. if nourishing loyalty and trust was the key to ensuring a partnership with percy, then it was luke's faulty planning, arrogance, and impatience that cost him the greatest ally he could ask for.

[wild-magic-oops]

take notes, Gale bby

[ducktracy]

there are a lot of evil people in the world and a lot of darkness in the world and so it’s very important for me to stress that now more than ever is the time to spread kindness and compassion. combat the evil by not only not partaking in it, but actively refuting it. destroy the notion that being compassionate or generous or kind to someone is uncool or embarrassing or even scary. be the change you want to see. start a chain reaction. positivity only breeds more positivity. do an act of kindness for someone so that that person who is too afraid to do it themselves can see you, realize that they’re not alone, and perhaps sheepishly follow your example. and then the next person who is too afraid but sees that person can do the same. when bad news comes out about bad people or horrible atrocities in the world it’s such an easy impulse to despair, and obviously it’s important to feel what you need to feel. grieve. be angry. be sorrowful. be empathetic. but dust off your pants and get up and be a part of a chain reaction that, no matter how small the scale, and spread compassion and love and care. all the reasons why you might not—“it’s hard! it’s scary! people will make fun of me! it’s useless because there’s too much evil!” are all grade A arguments as to why you should. you have no idea how many people you could inspire to do the same. even if it doesn’t get you anyway far, you can at least say you have the nobility of trying. please choose love and please choose life. you are worth loving and you are worth inspiring others to love

[rosekasa]

im feeling so unwell about them tonight

[ainsi-soit-il]

The thing about being religious is you'll talk about your beliefs and/or experiences with non-religious people, and they'll sort of pat you on the head and say, "Yes, what a nice little idea, I'm glad that you have your beliefs to comfort you!" and every time you have to bite your tongue because your religion isn't just a "nice little idea" to you, it's a cosmic truth that underlies all things, and furthermore, although God Himself has comforted you, that doesn't mean that faith itself is comfortable, but if you put any of that into words, they'll look at you funny.

[momentsbeforemass]

Angry

Have you ever known someone who was angry with everyone and everything, including God?

That anger can come from a lot of different places.

Sometimes it comes from loss.

Sometimes it comes from failure.

Sometimes it comes from fear.

Wherever it comes from, that anger is a sign.

It’s the sign of someone who has been hurt by people or by life. Maybe even by themselves.

That anger is also a response.

They’re trying to deal with something that wounded them at the deepest level.

They’re trying to protect themselves from ever being hurt that way again.

They’re lashing out. Often at those who had nothing to do with hurting them. Including God.

So how do we deal with those people?

The same way that God does. It’s what Jesus is showing us in today’s Gospel.

We deal with those people who are lost in their anger by not rejecting them.

This is not a passive thing. It’s more than sitting there, not doing…whatever to them.

This is an intentional, deliberate, aggressive refusal to reject them. An active, in-your-face love. A holy love.

It’s the love that God pours out without measure into our hearts. And theirs.

It’s the only thing that will ever work.

Only God’s love can deal with that kind of anger.

Only God’s love can heal that kind of hurt.

Today’s Readings

[in-kyblogs]

Doomed by the narrative - Doomed by her parents

[pinkcowzz]

dick had bruce as a partner. there was a mentorship there yes, but at the end of the day dick & bruce were a team.

jason had bruce as a father. bruce took him and made the extra effort. he actually adopted jay and stayed home when jason was sick.

tim had bruce as a liability.

tim went to bruce- bruce never found him. i just really love the idea that because of the difference in dynamic, tim is one of the few people who can shame bruce into compliance so easily.

dick and bruce will get into shouting matches that neither one of them walk away from being satisfied, bruce is an unmovable object and dick is an unstoppable force. when they meet, its not pretty and there is almost always collateral damage.

jason and bruce are like setting off two firecrackers next to each other when they fight. it's loud, it's bright, but it burns off fast. the anger and righteous fury is there one moment but then gone the next.

tim and bruce fight differently, because a lot of the time, tim understands where bruce is coming from. he saw bruce start on his path to self destruction and managed to get him to switch tracks. bruce was never the same after jason's death (what parent is after seeing their child die) but batman was able to correct himself. after stepping into the role of robin, tim understood. he too lost so many people he cared about because of the weight of the cape he wore.

and i think the first time that damian and bruce go head to head, dick may be the one who comforts damian and assures him of his place in the family, but tim is the one who goes to bruce. it's the first time bruce has ever seen tim this angry. tim is seething with a fury that would put the devil himself to shame. he is so angry that he is shaking and bruce can the restraint that tim is using to keep the discussion from becoming physical. tim tells bruce, or rather lectures him, in all the ways that he has fucked up with dick ('kicking him out, never officially adopting him, forcing him to go through with the spyral mission- you treat him as your partner when its convenient but the moment it's not he is your soldier again. its unfair bruce. he's more of a man, more of a father than you have ever been'), with jason ('do i even need to say it? actually, let me address it. you cannot see the forest past the trees. jason isn't who he was before he died. he never will be. same as you. he lost a lot more than his life when the joker blew him up. he lost his innocence, he lost his faith in you. i'm starting to think he may have been right') and with himself ('i love you bruce. i have always cared so deeply about you and your mission. it's why i came to dick in the first place. but this isn't about me.').

and bruce remembers why his relationship with tim is so different. tim trained overseas, tim got to patrol on his own as robin so much sooner than his other boys did. tim was largely unsupervised during his run with the young justice. tim had made up an entire fake uncle to keep his indepence. tim would never argue with bruce about himself in this way, but he would argue about- ('this is about damian. and i swear to god bruce. if you can't pull that stick out of your ass and find a way to apologize to damian that leaves him feeling properly taken care of. superman himself wouldn't be enough to save you from my wrath.')

and it's only later, after bruce does apologize to damian in a way that leaves dick speechless. when barbra happened upon the cave's security footage that she shares with dick who shares with steph who shares with jason that his family figures out just how fitting of a last name that drake is for tim.

[genderparfait]

people on this hellsite will talk about trans men and OUR experiences, but then tell us to shut up when we correct them. they want to talk about us but never want to actually listen to us.

"support trans people!" until a trans man says you're spreading harmful rhetoric and stereotypes about us, then we're over sensitive, whiny, and hysteric. i wonder where we've heard that one before?

[boojangs]

Wednesday: She is such a disastrous excuse for a werewolf, I cannot believe I am going to marry her.

Divina: I mean... you don't have to?

Wednesday, watching Enid throw a table because she lost at Uno: Oh no, I'm going to. Happily.

[canisalbus]

Can I ask how Vasco reacted to hearing about Machete’s assassination? :o did he put on a brave face? Was he inconsolable? Does he imagine that if he were there, he could’ve done something (even if that isn’t true? I imagine it would be tortuous mentally and emotionally for him, poor lad

He most likely went through a mental breakdown, followed by years of paralyzing grief and depression. Vasco had proven to be outstandingly resilient and optimistic in adversity, putting on a brave face was his second nature. But this was his final 'break the unbreakable' moment. He turned withdrawn and apathetic. He had never lost anyone this abruptly before, and he became visibly paranoid about the safety and health of his family while failing to look after his own wellbeing.

Of course he kept rewinding the events in his head and second-guessing himself about whether he could've prevented this outcome somehow, even when everyone who knew about his situation kept telling him there was no reason for him to blame himself for it. He struggled with the suddenness of it, and the lack of closure, and couldn't get over thinking how the love of his life had died alone, surprised, scared and in pain, and that there was absolutely nothing he could do to remedy that. Ludovica's support was invaluable to him. Since he couldn't mourn openly she was one of the few people who were there for him.

Eventually he came to terms with what had happened and learned to live with it, and even though he slowly regained his good-humoured personality, he never fully recovered back to his previous self.