May 25, 2015

Unoffendable?

In my last post, I promised to show you pictures of Chiricahua National Monument.  However, my wonderful husband has taken some amazing pictures and rather than steal his thunder and duplicate his efforts, I thought I would send you to his blog, ATrollInTheWoods.  Instead, I will be sharing my opinions about a book I just finished reading called Unoffendable by Brant Hansen.

The author is a radio DJ, formerly of Air1, now on NGen, which includes more Christian heavy metal and rap in its line up than Air1.  His style is what some people would call quirky.  He and his producer, Sherri sometimes hand out "accreditations" for anything people want.  You want a degree in collecting clutter?  They will hand one out.  Every year, during the March Madness College Basketball competition, he has his own "Brackets of Awesomness" and people vote on, for instance, whether Benedict Cumberbatch's voice is more awesome than fresh warm donuts at Krispy Kreme (or not).  My personal favorite, however, is his "If Jesus Had a Blog" blog.  It is exactly what the title implies, taking stories from the Gospels and putting them sort of in our time; however, the genius of the blog is that Brant includes the comments he thinks people would make in response to Jesus' blog.  If you want to know more about him, his story is found at I Am Second.

Should Christians be the least offendable people on the planet?  Should we be the most difficult to anger?  That is the premise that Brant Hansen proposes in his book.  He takes 24 chapters divided into several sections per chapter to discuss all sides of anger and taking offense.  He brings passages from the Bible to support his claim, as well as funny stories and the upside of releasing anger quickly.  He notes that anger and being offended is not a Christian problem or a non-Christian problem, it is a human problem.  I am going to share a few ideas and quotes from the book:

  • If righteous anger is okay, why isn't it listed as a fruit of the Spirit?
  •  Is there any such thing as human righteous anger or will it always be mixed with sin?
  • Holding onto anger is tiring.
  • What about those verses that say "In your anger do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger?  Isn't that saying it is okay to be angry as long as you don't sin?
  • Anger is natural.  Forgiveness is not.  Forgiveness is counter-culteral.
  • Letting go of anger allows you to receive peace and joy.
  • Anger is like the One Ring (from "The Lord of the Rings").  Except instead of one ring that needs to be dropped into Mt. Doom, there are six million.  Drop yours now.
This was a very convicting book to read, but Brant's humorous stories and often self deprecating humor, makes the content more palatable, giving you the notion that he is coming alongside you to encourage you as a fellow person who has struggled with anger and still struggles.  I am reading it to my kids, a section at a time and talking with them about it.