Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved.

Synecdoche, New York (2008) Written and Directed by Charlie Kaufman

Why is everyone so angry?

I’ve spent the better part of a year asking myself this question. I looked high and low; if I’m truly honest, I’d have to change it slightly to become more accurate.

Why am I so angry?

My life is full of convenience. It is full of transaction, at its best a mutually beneficial exchange of value, a kind of arm’s-length benign use of one another for our own ends. But it is not full of contemplation. It is often efficient. But it is lonely.

— Andy Crouch, The Life We're Looking For

Freedom is rarely a talking point, in my experience, where there is much division. In an American context, freedom is the bedrock for our nation and an honorable one at that. I believe freedom to be a noble pursuit, but it has devolved into a sinister sense of selfishness in its current state. When freedom becomes more about me and my ability to exert my will upon daily life, rather than choosing to promote the common good and serving God and neighbor, Christians lose the plot on multiple levels.

It takes a lot for me to get angry. Most of my friends can probably tell you the number of times I've actually gotten mad at them. It's rare, and for some of them, I haven't yet. This blog is different than probably anything I've ever written. I usually start with some witty quote from a book or article that I've read that strikes a chord in my soul. This week, though, I am going pretty stream of consciousness because I am angry and do not want to mince words.