Home & Blog | Lynne Baab

Holy Spirit disruptions: Learning from Jesus about anger

Lynne Baab • Friday October 1 2021

About 30 years ago, I read a book that has given me food for thought ever since, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion by Carol Tavris. Anger, Tavris argues, is essential for human flourishing because anger provides the energy to work for justice. All the great social justice movements in history – such as the abolition of slavery, women’s vote, and civil rights – were fueled by anger at injustice and its impact on human lives. After reading Tavris’s book, I began to identify symptoms of anger in my body, so I improved at noticing the early signs of anger (in my stomach...

Read full article »

Holy Spirit disruptions: Free to be a little weird

Lynne Baab • Saturday September 25 2021

When I was a kid, being “nice” was super-important. The word “nice” covered so many areas of life: how you dressed, how you talked, how often you offered to help your parents or other adults, whether you were “seen and not heard” when parents were trying to talk to friends, and whether you played well enough with other children that you didn’t need parents to intervene in conflicts. Being “nice” involved going to church, but in my family we never talked about God at home, and we never read the Bible, so as a child I didn’t make a big connection...

Read full article »

Holy Spirit disruptions: Seeing people through the lens of Jesus’ cross

Lynne Baab • Friday September 17 2021

My friend Elizabeth is telling me about her relationship with her brother and sister. Her parents were not happy with the some of the life choices she made as a young adult. This caused a disconnect with the whole family, and her siblings kept her at arm’s length for many years.

A few years ago, Elizabeth began meditating on Jesus’ death: the events leading up to the crucifixion, the betrayal by his friends, the pain of death on a cross, and the utter desolation of being separated from his Father. “When you really sit with those events,” Elizabeth reflects, “you can’t help...

Read full article »

Holy Spirit disruptions: Detachment with love

Lynne Baab • Saturday September 11 2021

A few years ago a friend started attending Alanon. She taught me a phrase she learned there: “detachment with love.” In Alanon, the phrase is used to describe a stance that supports family members and friends who suffer from addiction, without enabling or rescuing. For me, those words unlocked a door I had been trying to get through for years, not so much with addicts but with people I find challenging. I had seen the kind of detachment that hurts: family members completely rejecting other family members, friends who completely turn away from friends. I had seen the kind of love...

Read full article »

<< Newer | Older >>