bleeding out loud

The phrase patient endurance comes from the Greek word hupomone. It means “to bear up in the face of difficulty.” Sometimes it gets translated as persevere, but it has the emphasis of both patience and endurance. In a number of languages patience is expressed idiomatically: “To remain seated in one’s heart.”

Check out this clip from the now infamous Pacers/Pistons brawl from back in 2004. 8 seconds into the clip, notice how the players on the Pacers bench all jump up out of their seats. Also, notice how the coaches immediately position themselves to keep the players in their seats. This is an intentional move on the coaches part because they know that once their players get up out of their seats and leave the bench, it’s incredibly difficult to regain composure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwVX4VD1lQ&feature=related

Patience is no different. The minute you explode out of the seat of your heart, it’s incredibly difficult to get your composure back. Patience is staying seated in your heart when everything around you starts going South.

The Hebrew word for anger is the word “chara” (if you pronounce it right, you’ll spit on someone). Not only does it mean anger but it also means, “to burn.” Jonah’s anger is a seething, bubbling kind of rage just below the surface. It’s the kind of anger that has been around for a long time and could explode through the surface at any moment. Minor infractions lead to volcanic eruptions of rage. Chara is when people are deeply angry but either refuse to deal with it or don’t know why they’re so angry, and then suddenly blow up over the most incidental things.

Pure

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” I’ve never appreciated the statement knowing full well what’s inside my own heart, and what, I suspect, is inside all of our hearts. It strikes me as the kind of statement no one ever believes is about themselves. It must be about someone else-someone whose heart isn’t so full of anger or lust or selfishness. And so because no one believes it is about them, then it really seems to be a statement about no one at all, unless, of course, purity means something entirely different. The word pure comes from the Greek word katharos, which is where we get the word cathartic; intense emotional releases that leave us feeling reborn, renewed, or revitalized. It’s why people talk about how good it was to have had “a good cry” or a “good laugh.” Purity is more of a process than a quality.

Hypocrite

In ancient Greek, a hypocrite was someone who pretended to be other than what he or she really was. It was a phrase used for actors. They played a role for the crowd. Jesus borrowed the phrase regularly to describe the religious elites of his day. “Woe to you…you hypocrites…you clean the outside of the cup but the inside is full of greed and self-indulgence…you are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.” If the gap between our well-kept exteriors and our impoverished interiors is any measure of hypocrisy, then all of us fit the bill. It seems to me that one of the great challenges of being fully human is simply learning to be who we have been all along, to be at home in our own skin. Those who’ve learned to stop living in obedience to the perception of others, whose exteriors and interiors are divided no more have tasted something of heaven here.