The Mad King

Samuel 16:14-23

God provides a pathway to peace

Anger as a secondary emotion

Anger acts as a defensive shield from vulnerable emotions like fear/powerlessness/shame.

Notice / Name / Narrate

• NOTICE - How do I know I'm angry? 

  • My Body

  • Trusted Others

• NAME - Understanding my anger

 “Anger is most useful as a diagnostic tool. When anger erupts in us it is a signal that something is wrong.”

-Eugene Peterson 

Joel 2:13 Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

“When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear. When you live in God's Kingdom there's always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love"

Dan White Jr. 

• NARRATE - Tell the story to regain power/agency over the emotion

“I’m not sure I’m called to imitate Christ in his rage, but I know I’m called to imitate Christ on the cross. It’s the cruciform that is the definitive form of Christian beauty. Crucifixion is ugly unless we imitate Christ and pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is the beauty that saves the world.”

Brian Zahnd

“Brothers, sisters… I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left. To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home. I, too, was angry with God. I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine. And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo. But then I discovered something: God doesn't shout. God whispers. And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain… So if you're broken, if you don't believe, if you're tired of the lies... come anyway. With your anger, your doubt… Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary." 

Pope Leo XIV