79. Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better. Brant Hansen. 2015. 214 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Okay. So this may sound like the dumbest thing you've ever read, but here goes: You can choose to be "unoffendable."
Brant Hansen's Unoffendable is a quick, thought-provoking read. It challenges mindsets for sure. It was written by a Christian for other Christians, but, surely the whole world would benefit IF and only IF people CHOSE to be UNOFFENDABLE.
Essentially, the book argues that GOD IS GOD IS GOD IS GOD IS GOD. We are not. We're just not. God knows all, sees all, hears all, can judge the OUTER actions and inner thoughts. Nothing is hidden from God. NOTHING. Not a thing. We can trust God to handle everything. His justice. His wrath. His righteous indignation. His vengeance, if you will. GOD has a time and place and a WAY. No one will escape his judgment.
The Bible has commanded us to be forgiving, to love our enemies, to not store up anger, to not act in anger, to not take vengeance, to not harbor resentment and anger and bitterness. Forgiveness is the way. Love is the way. We are to not let anger rule in our hearts, our minds, our spirits. Whether we are sinned against by an unbeliever or a believer, we can choose forgiveness. This means trusting God with everything, with all the details. Hansen argues that it can be our egos, our pride, our sense of entitlement, that fuels our outrage. Choose humility over pride and love over hate. He stresses throughout that it is BECAUSE we have been forgiven by God that we can forgive others. OUR sin was great and yet forgiven. We are not without sin, we are forgiven by a gracious God who calls us to graciously extend that forgiveness to others. The point is also made that God does not need us to be angry on his behalf. God is God is God. Everyone will be held accountable. God doesn't need us to fight his battles for him--in anger. I think you can stand for truth, stand for righteousness, stand for the faith without being angry. Hansen stresses that anger is not necessary for action. You can SEE injustice and ACT without being angry. You can SEE error and speak against it without being angry.
The book challenges assumptions and presumptions. It's a good read. There are a LOT of stories and illustrations. Not as much exposition of Scriptures in great detail. BUT I do think that when he uses Scripture it seemingly is used correctly.
ETA: I have read a few reviews that point out that Hansen CHOOSES his verses carefully and does not mention verses that seemingly conflict with his position. That he only presents one side and oversimplifies everything. I thought that was a fair point. I mean he does not do a deep dive into EVERY instance of anger in the Old Testament and New Testament.
So now I'm torn between four stars and three stars. There are plenty of commands to love and forgive. No lie. In the gospels. In the epistles. But there's also instances in Scripture where we are told to hate sin, to reject sin, to NOT associate or "walk with" the unrighteous. I imagine it is oversimplified here. BUT we are living in dangerous times where EVERYONE tends to be offended by everything all the time always and always and no exceptions. So perhaps the pendulum has swung a little too extreme in reaction to that. But I do think he makes some good points.
The review of this book that has made me think hardest mentions Paul's anger in the book of Galatians. Though one could easily jump from Paul's anger in that circumstance to Paul's anger with the Corinthians.
Hansen tends to think that anger is wrong 100% of the time no excuses, and I'm not sure the Bible concurs with that. I think it's more nuanced than that.
Quotes:
We're told to forgive, and that means anger has to go, whether we've decided our anger is "righteous" or not.Yes, the world is broken. But don't be offended by it. Instead, thank God that He's intervened in it, and He's going to restore it to everything it was meant to be.What about being angry at sin, Brant? Of course, we're supposed to be angry at sin. It's probably worth noting that, usually, when this question is asked of me, it's about something more specific. By "sin" we mean other people's sin. Are we to cling to anger at their sin? God took out His wrath on Jesus for other people's sin. And I believe Jesus suffered enough to pay for it, and my sin too. I'm so thankful for that. He will deal with others' sins; it's not my deal.We cling to our self-righteousness and can't possibly imagine giving it up. We think it's how we're supposed to live. Wait: We're supposed to surrender the idea that we know others' motivations? We're supposed to give up thinking we know everyone's spiritual temperature?But rules don't change anyone's heart, ever. Grace does.Being offended is a tiring business. Letting things go gives you energy.An emotion is just an emotion. It's not critical thinking. Anger doesn't pause. We have to stop, and we have to question it.Anger is extraordinarily easy. It's our default setting. Love is very difficult. Love is a miracle.God knows others' private motives. We don't. God knows our private motives. We don't. We think we can judge others' motives. We're wrong. We should abandon our "right" to anger, simply because we can deceive ourselves so easily.It is the essence of ministry. It finally occurred to me that we can't be agents of healing in people's lives unless we're ready to bear their wounds for them and from them.Seek justice; love mercy. You don't have to be angry to do that.We simply can't trust ourselves in our judgments of others. WE don't know what they're really thinking, or their background, or what really motivated whatever they did. And since we don't know, let's choose ahead of time: we're just not going to get offended by people. If we don't need to be right, we don't have to reshape reality to fit "The Story of My Rightness."
