Relational Sanity Pt 4: Don’t put anyone on a pedestal

I had a dream a few months ago. Two people whom I love and respect put a plate in front of me that had a mixture of clean and unclean foods on it, and I had to reject it.

Sometimes dreams are just that simple, but they have profound meaning.

Now these are both people whom I trust, whose counsel I seek out, but like everyone else they are fallible. They mean to give out nothing but good advice (don’t we all?) but the truth is that no one ever gives out good counsel 100% of the time. We are human, and we blow it sometimes. We might be having a bad day, or we may be suffering from an extreme blind spot or prejudice in an area. Sometimes we can be so blinded by past trauma, or certain unquestioned teachings, that we can’t see the forest for the trees and we end up presenting a plate of good and evil for those who come to us.

It doesn’t mean that the person who did it has evil intentions, because there is good on the plate as well, but it does mean that we cannot afford to blindly accept the counsel of anyone — even the very wise!

We have to know how to walk away from what they are offering us without walking away from them.

I was thinking about Job’s friends. Do you think he went out and pursued a bunch of heartless fools for friends, or rather that these were wise men who had paradigms? A paradigm is a distinct thought pattern, generally so deeply ingrained that we do not question it. We all have them, we just aren’t aware of them because paradigms are seen as bedrock truths. We don’t question them because we regard them as foundational. We can’t even go looking for them because our minds generally will not allow it. Oftentimes our only hope is that God will bring us revelation in that area.

What an irritating predicament! As a result of these mindless mindsets, we offer people plates full of advice that are a mixture of good and evil, clean and unclean. If we have ourselves up on that pedestal, we will demand that people eat of that plate of good and evil, every single bite. If we come down off that pedestal, I think we will be less likely to hand out anything at all, and incredibly cautious when we do.

So do people a favor and if you have them on a pedestal, please gently allow them a way down from it. It isn’t fair to have them up there – not for them and not for you, and certainly not to the only One who should be on anyone’s pedestal. Let’s face reality, we are all imperfect. Striving towards perfection, yes, but imperfect. It is an act of mercy to recognize that about others, an act of humility to realize it about ourselves and wisdom to put it into practice.

Learning How to Spot a Religious Hack

This isn’t my normal type of post on the blog, but the anti-missionaries are hard at work lately, barging on to threads uninvited and trying to get people to deny Messiah.

A political hack is a negative term ascribed to a person who is part of the political party apparatus, but whose intentions are more aligned with victory than personal conviction.

Well, religion has them too and I just had one on a thread really display it for all to see. If you learn what to look for, they are easy to spot and disarm. I will use antimissionaries (people who are dedicated to get others to deny Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah) as an example, but you can also find this when a person has a ministry devoted to the promotion of an agenda (ie. Westboro Baptist). Pro-abortion activists use these tactics as well.

#1. They will insist on redefining the conversation. You ask X, and they demand that you talk about Y, completely ignoring X and then asking if you have something to hide when you don’t want to talk about Y (which had nothing to do with anything in the first place). If they can, they will get you so busy making it clear that you are not an idolater, not a follower of lawlessness, and not personally responsible for the crusades that you will not have any time to talk about the real issues. They will be controlling everything and you will be left playing defense.

#2. They redefine terms. For example, if I am using Yeshua, the antimissionary will always try to make the conversation about Jesus, even though they know that isn’t his real name. In fact — they were often among the ones most ardent about beating that Name over people’s heads back when they were believers. This is a classic example of redefining terms. They don’t want to talk about Yeshua the Jew, they want to talk about Jesus the supposed Gentile. They don’t want to talk about what I actually believe, even when they know what I believe, they want to go with the most extreme views they can find in order to bolster their points — without actually having to prove anything.

#3. Talking points. They all say the same things, but if you look closely, they actually don’t say anything. “It all breaks down in the Hebrew,” or “the Bibles are mistranslations,” and “the church has done this or that.” Well, if the Bibles are all mistranslations, then they can’t prove that things break down in the Hebrew because the Septuagint clearly shows that the modern masoretic text (which is not as ancient as they claim) does not always line up with the most ancient texts that we have — most notably in the messianic scriptures. Imagine that. As for what the church has done, that has zero to do with Yeshua ben Yosef. One might as well blame Moses for King Manashsheh burning his own son in the fire. I mean, really.

#4. Let me help you. I have had this offer made many times. But this is not an opportunity to dialog, this is them wanting to indoctrinate you — something they claim to hate. Indoctrination is bad when Christianity does it, but not when antimissionaries do it. But they are very selective about what they will talk about and they will throw out everything and anything that they do not agree with. They will define what can and cannot be discussed.

#5 They only target Torah pursuant people, not mainstream Christians. If they were truly concerned and loving, they would target all Christians. But as we see in the Book of Revelation, the serpent is ONLY enraged at one group — those who keep the commandments AND have the testimony of Yeshua (Rev 12:17). Anti-missionaries aren’t concerned with folks following Jesus, they only care once we start touching the Torah. And then they infect some messianics, and get them to do their dirty work for them.

In the end, look at what they are saying.

#1. What are they saying in context? Are they cherry picking verses or do they use the whole of scripture? Are they using disputed verses that have been radically altered since 300BC when the Septuagint was written? Do their interpretations meet the 2-3 witness rule? Can you find multiple biblical authors saying the same thing? Can you find multiple biblical authors saying the exact opposite? Do they say the Targums are not allowable commentary but the Talmud is? Or do they only accept some of the Rabbis and not others? Are they the only ones who get to decide what is acceptable proof?

#2. Are they making vague claims? Are they counting on you swallowing their lines and letting doubt do their work for them? Are they giving the same talking points as everyone else?

#3. Are they pro YHVH or just anti-Jesus? A lot of times you look on their pages and their entire focus is anti-Jesus with little or no emphasis on the One whom they claim as God. Spiritualbabies and Truth2U used to be very diverse and very pro-YHVH when they were believers and now they are simply anti-Jesus. You can’t have a ministry of being against someone, the only valid ministry is to be pro-YHVH.

#4. What is the character of the person speaking to you? If you don’t know their character, then you have no grounds to let them bother you. If you don’t know their agenda, their walk, etc.. then don’t put your life into their hands.

I am going to sum this up by stating one simple fact.

The only way that hacks can nab you is by causing you to forget what you know is true experientially by sidetracking you. Learn to stay on topic. If they came to you uninvited, then you have a right to define the terms of the discussion. They have no right to cross your boundaries and talk about anything you don’t want to discuss.

I used this to shut one down once, when the antimissionary claimed to be spamming my friend’s thread (who didn’t even know her) out of love and concern, “Well X, if you truly are concerned about Sister Y, you have certainly stated your case and she knows exactly what you believe. I hope you have enough respect for her to allow her to study this out for herself if, as you say, you are motivated by love and concern. She certainly knows who to go to for answers if she wants them. You wouldn’t want to be guilty of an inquisition type harassment in order to browbeat her into agreeing with you without a time of prayer and study, right?”

Joseph, Rachel and what they teach us about how to deal with life.

I have learned so many different things from people in the scriptures and how they lived their lives, but this morning I want to talk about Joseph.

Everyone agrees that Joseph was extraordinary. But what about his mother, Rachel? A barren woman, the beloved and favorite wife who strove against her sister because of the cruel circumstances inflicted by their own father, someone who strove against her own husband, and the daughter who stole what she felt belonged to her husband by inheritance rights. And I am not saying that I am judging Rachel. I don’t know what it is like to have a sister as a rival for my husband’s heart, but I do know the frustrations of being barren and the cry of “Give me children, or I’ll die!” (Gen 30:1). I also cannot relate to the frustration she experienced as her husband was constantly being cheated out of the inheritance owed to him by Laban. I understand, when they left with with the livestock but without the land, why she must have felt entitled to take the household gods too. In the ancient Near East, those were an important part of what was passed down from father to son. But, as it was her character to strive against circumstances, she ended up dead when her own husband unknowingly pronounced a curse against her even as he was answering the charges of her father against them. In an attempt to restore honor through answering the charges, Moses credits him as the architect of his beloved wife’s death.

It is interesting then, that Rachel gave birth to a son who went through far worse and yet never strove against it. Joseph took everything life handed to him and prospered in the midst of it. This morning, as I was meditating upon the Word in my bed, I realized that the story of Rachel and Joseph teaches us that a life of striving against circumstance is deadly, but embracing what has been given to us and striving against ourselves is life.

Joseph lost his mother when he was very young.

Joseph was rejected by his brothers, because of the favor showed him by their father and because of his dreams–and because he was a bratty little tattletale who preferentially ratted out the sons of his father’s concubines.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.

Joseph ended up a slave in the house of Potiphar of Egypt.

Joseph had to endure repeated seduction attempts by Potiphar’s wife, who was married to a eunuch and perhaps desperately desired children (definitely striving against her circumstances).

Joseph was wrongfully accused of rape and thrown into jail for years and as far as we know, he was never cleared of that crime.

Joseph successfully interpreted the dreams of the baker and cup bearer but went forgotten.

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and became viceroy of Egypt.

Joseph is given a pagan wife and for all intents and purposes, is made to live as an Egyptian, so in many ways he is still nothing but a slave even though he has great power as he the freedom to leave Egypt.

And what do we see at each turn of events? Joseph never strives against his circumstances. He accepts them and serves, and keeps on going. He serves his father, he serves Potiphar, he serves the jailer, he serves Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt. We see no accounts of rebellion. We never see him striving against his cruel circumstances. Joseph never fights against his life, only against temptation. Rachel, who strove with Leah, and her husband, and her father – gave birth to someone who didn’t strive against anyone. Joseph cooperated. Joseph lived and saved innumerable lives.

So many of us do not like the hand we have been dealt. Our lives, or our spouses or children are not what we thought they should be. But we have to realize that our lives are a gift – they were given to us not so that we could conquer evil, but so that we could learn to conquer ourselves in the midst of evil. For the most part, Rachel wasn’t dealing with the consequences of her own sin, but the consequences of her father’s sin. Likewise, Joseph usually wasn’t dealing with the consequences of his own sins either. And there is a difference in how we treat those two situations. When I have made a misstep, or have sinned and find myself in an evil predicament, I must repent and fight my way out of it for the sake of my family and others. For instance, if I have married an abuser, I have to get my kids and myself out of there. If I have gotten myself addicted to drugs or pornography (which I did as a child), I need to repent and fight my way out of it. But if the circumstances are beyond my control–like Joseph’s and Rachel’s, I have to conduct myself like Joseph and not like Rachel. I have to serve faithfully in this life I have been given until the time comes when God’s plans are revealed and He gives me the authority to act. But this constant striving is deadly. We cannot strive against everything and hope to have a victory in anything. We cannot run from the lives we have been given any more than Joseph could have gotten out of that pit, or away from Potiphar, or escaped from jail, or abandoned Pharaoh. Our lives were given to us so that we could learn the servitude of the slave, the distress of the wrongfully condemned, or the humility of the subject of a pagan King – and thrive in the midst of it, even so far as blessing our persecutors.

Very few of us are meant to ever conquer anything except ourselves. And yet conquering ourselves is a greater thing than conquering the world. It is when we have conquered ourselves that we can fight the good fight with honor and integrity–like the Civil Rights protesters last century in my own country who fought not only for themselves but for the voiceless and the powerless and sometimes paid the price of their lives. But they had to learn not to fight as the world fights, serving the world according to the upside down ways of the Kingdom. Just as the people of India did against the mighty British Empire, and won.

Yeshua (Jesus) came first as the suffering servant. He saw the evil Roman Empire all around him every single day. He saw crucifixions, and paganism. His earthly king wasn’t even of the line of David but from the seed of Edom. He had to pay taxes to Caesar in order to be excluded from the Imperial order to sacrifice to Caesar once a year. And yet, we never see Him fighting “everything.” We see him preaching truth and serving and when he was tested verbally, then we see him striving with those who were questioning Him in the normal ancient Near Eastern fashion. He isn’t recorded as spending time fighting against His circumstances. He didn’t have a roof over His head, we don’t see complaining about not having enough money for His ministry, or fighting against his family or hometown. He even went to His death without a fight. He didn’t focus on the negatives, but on the Kingdom of Heaven, and only really fought when He saw people being barred from it or when He saw His Father’s character being misrepresented. Yeshua had a lot to complain about but He didn’t spend much time doing it.

Like Yeshua, it is our lot to sometimes suffer in the lives that were chosen for us. Like Joseph, we are in exile here, captives, and it is not going to be easy. But we have been ordained to thrive in the midst of those circumstances, to show what His character looks like in the midst of troubles. And in order to accurately reflect His character within the trial, we have to stop striving against the trial and instead use the trial to strive against ourselves. And like Joseph, to strive on behalf of the salvation of others–saving people who were foreign to himself and perhaps even hateful. What would the world be like if those in positions of privilege strove on behalf of others instead of themselves?

Rachel could have refused to strive against her sister, who was every bit as much a victim as she was. She could have appreciated that she had the love her sister was denied, and pitied her sister. She could have cried out to God for children, instead of to her husband. She could have left well enough alone and left the foreign gods behind. After all, if her husband wanted them he could have taken them himself. And additionally, she had the opportunity to speak up when her father made the accusation, before her husband pronounced the curse. Repentance could have saved her life. She also could have told Jacob what she had done, before her father ever arrived. Rachel suffered, but her response to suffering was fruitless. Joseph suffered, and his response was life to many.

So we need to stop resenting and striving as the world strives against every personal circumstance we don’t like–and instead learn to be as Yeshua in the midst of that circumstance. Learn to be the one in the midst of trouble who is just, righteous, merciful, self-sacrificing, radically loving, and diligent to serve. Not focused on self, nor on the pain nor inconvenience nor how things should have been, but on how to do what must be done with how things are. That is not to say that we don’t speak up, or even act up when we have opportunity to make change in the midst of persecution but as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we have to play by Kingdom of Haven rules. The world will do what the world will do–this has never changed and we cannot control whether they allow us to live or die. But we can represent well when it is our turn to be seen and heard.

Putting Away Childish Things Pt 7: Making a list, and checking it forever

I Cor 13:4-6 (edited) Love is…. not….resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing…”

As I established in part one of this series, anything that violates these “laws of love” in I Cor 13 qualifies as one of the “childish things” referred to in vs 11. The edited section above is a toughie and I never tied the concepts together until this morning. How does resentment connect up with rejoicing about transgressions?

Very simple.

There are those who delight in every offense against them because they are making a list to throw in the faces of their transgressors whenever it benefits them.

Do you know people like this? People who “forgive” but who are quick to bring up past wrongs whenever they need to assert some control? Whether it be to engender sympathy, or induce guilt, or control behavior — that list is is quickly pulled out and loudly articulated. Yes, they have “forgiven” us, but we need to be reminded over and over and over again in case we forgot, or if we annoy them, or if they want their way and need to ply some emotional blackmail.

It is one thing to have an internal list of reasons why we cannot safely be in a relationship with someone who is actually abusive, and quite another to use past sins as a manipulative tool against those who we have chosen to be in relationship with and are actually trying. Yes, remember the man who molested you and stay away, but when you say you have forgiven and they have repented and are trying to do better, they do not need to hear the whole list every time they screw up. That isn’t exhortation (encouragement towards righteousness), that is dragging a person back to the cesspool they used to live in and splashing them with the contents until they grovel.

People need to be able to escape their pasts at some point, because if they can’t then what is the point of walking this walk at all? If there is no remission of sins within a relationship then there is also no hope. Yeshua (Jesus) did that for us, which is why we can have a relationship with the Father, despite all the evils in the past. If I respond by continuing to sin on purpose, then yes, there is a list being compiled against me and there is no remission for that – just like in any relationship. But when I sin against Him and feel deep regret, and go forward trying to do better, He loves me and accepts that. He doesn’t accept my transgressions, but He accepts me when I repent, draw near and keep trying. I am grateful that He never reproaches me for what I used to write, thankful He does not drag me back to that filth to look at it because if He did I might give up and sit down there to stay and die. Humans might decide to torture me for a life left far behind, but He doesn’t.

We need to deal with the repentant sin by sin, not piling them up in a big ugly list like some kind of twisted self-righteous insurance policy. We have to forget the things they have stopped doing so that they can forget it too, and so that they can stop living there. If the people we are responsible for do less evil less often, then deal with the less evil and stop reminding them of the worse evil they used to do more often. I know it seems like a risk when we have learned to rely on this method of controlling others, but we are called not only to righteousness but also to right ruling (justice, mishpat). Righteousness requires a standard, but right ruling requires merciful administration.

I cannot tell you what that looks like in every situation, but it never looks like a long laundry list of offenses that the person doesn’t want to commit anymore.

You know, what it amounts to is unnecessary, fruitless, and pointless attempts to shame someone who is already ashamed of their past. It might seem like accountability, but accountability is about the “now” and not about issues that have already been addressed. If there is shame and repentance, then there can be restoration — if the offended party is able to forgive and show mercy. Sometimes that does not happen, sometimes the crime is so great that the victim cannot bring himself/herself to forgive. In that case, there is a breach in the relationship and possibly no relationship left at all. But those situations are the exception rather than the rule. Sadly, most lists are populated with relatively minor offenses – which is why each new offense is rejoiced over as a new piece of ammunition.

I am going to close this out with an ugly piece of truth. The saddest reason for these lists, the reason new transgressions are rejoiced over is this —

We want the person who hurt us to hurt as badly as we hurt. But we have to accept that it is never going to happen. The murderer, no matter how repentant, is never going to hurt as badly as the loved ones of the victim. It is impossible. They will never be able to pay a price high enough to balance out the pain that thy have caused. The same is true for just about every sin out there. The victims always hurt worse than the person who hurt them. That is why the victim will often delight in the new sins as the only way they have to inject new pain into the person they hurt them. They see new transgressions as an opportunity for revenge.

Beloveds, this is a trap. As difficult as it is to accept, they will never hurt in the same way, with the same intensity that they have hurt us. Keeping that list and becoming their tormentor isn’t just childish, it drags us into sin. We become the accuser, we become the oppressor, we become the one who does not forgive, we become the discourager. And it is addictive. It is a deadly addiction. It may seem like justice, but it isn’t, it just bores a hole into our souls where we store the sins of others for our amusement, to satisfy flesh that will never shout, “Enough!”

We are called to allow God to be our judge, and our justice. We have to set ourselves free, by truly forgiving and truly letting go and trusting that there will be true justice someday. But worldly recompense for our pain? It will never happen, not by making a list and living in it. The only thing that can happen, of any good, will be to allow God to take that pain and make something else out of it. You may not believe me now, but when it happens, it really is enough.

The Character of God as Father Pt 15: Don’t Mock His Disabled Children

I am going to share this two part revelation based on Lev 19:14, a verse which is etched deeply in my mind.

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.

Now, even most bullies won’t mess with the disabled in the PC environment of the US, and I have to say that’s one area of political correctness I am grateful for as a special needs mom. But this verse goes deeper than it would appear, because in scriptures blindness and deafness are also equated with the spiritual concepts of not being about to hear or perceive the Words of God. So how are we to treat them? Do we mock them and trip them up? Or do we assist them as we would someone who is physically deaf and/or blind? Is there any honor at all in creating barriers between God and the people who are spiritually blind and deaf to His Word? Is it not God who controls who sees and who is blind, who hears and who is deaf?

Ex 4:11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

When we mock those with closed eyes, do we not sit in judgment of the One who could lift the veil and restore their sight and cause them to hear? Do we dare make fun of someone who has not been the recipient of God’s mercy? Did we obtain mercy by merit? Were our eyes and ears opened because we earned it? Mine were not. And are we wise enough to always know the difference between those in actual rebellion to what they know, vs rebellion to what we are telling them? If they do not believe us because they cannot perceive the truth in what we are saying, are they to be equated with those who know, intimately, the truth and have walked away? Do we dare mock them?

When we mock the deaf and trip up the blind, are we not falsely representing the character of the One who came to open ears and eyes?

Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Why on earth would we mock the people who have not received this blessing? Why would we even risk it with our angry, self-righteous presumptions?

I have been laid terribly low with a dream that I had this morning. I will share it here, the dream was two-fold.

*******************

In the first part of the dream, I was preparing foundations for living quarters in a house. Beds and bathrooms had been placed in rooms that had no floors, and I was planning and counting the cost of building those foundations. Some of the rooms had refrigerators with good and bad foods in them so I had to get rid of the bad foods. As I was going through the house making plans, I walked outside and into a courtyard where I saw a great many refugees. They were cold and so I went and got the blankets off the beds in the foundationless rooms, assessed people’s needs and handed out the bedding that was available, covering people according to their level of risk. I never asked why they were there, or who they were, I just handed out coverings so they would be warm.

In the second part of a dream, a former ally became an enemy to myself and my companions – because we were not giving him leadership over us, we refused to hear his words. That former ally desired to compromise us. I was the last person that he tried to attack, and he did so by making cruel and taunting accusations about my disabled son (who as many of you know, is also adopted) in front of a crowd of people. As he did it, even though some of the accusations were true or could be true, I rose up and addressed his audience. Full of passion and wrath I did not know existed, I explained my son’s situation, I pleaded his case, I appealed for mercy – no, I demanded mercy by the forcefulness of my defense. I never mocked the man who was attacking my son, I simply defended my son so ardently that his audience was forced to recognize my son’s merit. The man attacking my son lost in a stunning public display.

*******************

What are we called to do?

Are we called to acts of mercy? Are we called to minister to the wretched within the reach of our grasp, those we can see around us? Are we to assess their needs and fill them? I tell you the truth, in one way or another, every single one of us is like those refugees in my first dream. In one or more (or many more) areas of our lives we are naked, cold and filthy. If someone is able to keep me from dying, should they not cover me? Or should we yell at people and tell them how cold and naked and filthy they are. The second is a lot easier to do. It appeals to the flesh. It seems like righteousness. But what does YHVH require of us?

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Do you love mercy? Do you walk with such humility that you hate it on those occasions when you have to rebuke? Are you so concerned with justice that you agonize over whether you are tripping a blind man or saving a rebellious one? God requires all those things of us. Nowhere does He require us to mock people. And just because someone in scriptures is recorded as doing it does not make it right. All of the forefathers sinned, sins that were not called out as sin in the text, but were indeed sin. We cannot use the acts of men to excuse our actions. We cannot equate their situations with ours so easily, in order to justify ourselves.

Now for the second dream. I sometimes think that I was made an adoptive mother not only as a blessing to myself, but so that I could understand the passionate love between parent and adopted child. I believe I was made a special needs mom in order to bless and refine me, and to help me understand our condition before our Heavenly Father. The man in my dream who was mocking my son was retaliating because we were not listening to him. His intention was to wound and conquer so that people would listen to him and follow him and agree with him. But he made the mistake of attacking my child, based on how his disabilities compromise him – without explaining his disabilities at all but only focusing on his behavior. He withheld the information that would have moved his audience to mercy.

But it was the very things that compromised him, that I rose up and used in his favor. I was filled with such outrage, such love, such overwhelming wrath and grief. Everything I said was borne out of loving my son, defending him from unfair accusations born out of a lack of mercy. The man accusing my son should have attacked me instead. You do not attack someone’s disabled child without facing wrath. As I told the crowd about my son, about his challenges, the crowd came to see the humanity of my son (whereas before they were snickering) and they came to have compassion on him.

I woke up with the realization that when we attack our brothers and sisters, the adopted children of God, when we accuse them and mock them we never take into account why they are doing what they do. We never stop to wonder about the unseen disabilities. Is the person drowning in an endless sea of false teachings that they are too afraid to let go of? Were they beaten or molested by their father and unable to embrace a religion that is centered around a Father figure? Are they dedicated to being good, yet with unopened eyes and ears because their time has not come yet? Were they rescued from a perverse Hollywood lifestyle and now desperately cling to and defend what they see as their life-preserver, sometimes in wrong ways but with good intentions? Are not all these people disabled children? Do we want to risk incurring the Father’s wrath by touching them with our merciless scorn? Do we want to assume willful rebellion? Do we want to presume what they do and do not truly understand? Do we ever want to be laid low by an angry Father who rises up in defense of His disabled child? Do we want to hurt Him, the way I was hurt in that dream, on behalf of my son?

Let me tell you, I do not love the way He does. I wouldn’t even want to face my wrath, the way it was meted out towards that man. I am not God, my wrath pales in comparison to the efficiency and purity of His. I do not want to provoke His wrath and anguish by mocking His disabled children.

I don’t ever want to mock anyone ever again.