Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 11). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now we may not say that out loud.   Well maybe we do at least once a week but we do think it more that we say it.   Don’t we? Brant says, “Many times in my life, I’ve vocalized, in traffic, something like, ‘Man, what a jerk.’ I can’t remember ever, not once, saying, ‘Man, I’m a jerk.’ Why? Because I’m a victim. My intentions are pure. Other people are the perps. I’m never a perp.”   We think that too many times, don’t we? He goes on, “It’s as natural as breathing, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s as universal as eating, but that doesn’t make it right either. Because whatever they did? We’re just as guilty.” He continues, “I’m not entitled to my anger against them, and I’m not entitled to think I’m entitled to my anger. And yet...

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 5). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Well, I won’t admit that it is true.   But then maybe he’s right.   I know he is right. Brant continues, “We don’t like what caused the anger, to be sure; we just like thinking we’ve ‘got’ something on someone. So-and-so did something wrong, sometimes horribly wrong, and anger offers us a sense of moral superiority.”   Oh no.   Here comes that pride thing. He goes on, “That’s why we call it ‘righteous anger,’ after all. It’s moral and good, we want to think. Problem is, ‘righteous anger’ directed at someone is pretty tricky. It turns out that I tend to find Brant Hansen’s anger more righteous than others’ anger. This is because I’m so darn right. I’m me. I tend to side with me. My arguments are amazingly convincing to me.   Bu...

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 2). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now that is an offensive statement.   That would make some people angry.   Some would say, “I have a right to be angry.   You don’t know what they did to me” But here is what Brant says, “We should forfeit our right to be offended. That means forfeiting our right to hold on to anger. When we do this, we’ll be making a sacrifice that’s very pleasing to God. It strikes at our very pride. It forces us not only to think about humility, but to actually be humble.”   And we know what God thinks about pride and humility, don't we? Brant goes on, “I used to think it was incumbent upon a Christian to take offense. I now think we should be the most refreshingly unoffendable people on a planet that seems to spin on an axis of offense.” He...