Piloting Faith: When you are angry...

A Word for the Day...
I attended a conference recently exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. A woman from Nigeria raised her hand and said, "Here is my problem with AI. It learns based on the information it is being fed. Right now, it is being fed information important to its creators, white men. If AI is going to shape my world and the world my children live in, we are going to have a big problem. This is not going to work for me." Behind me, a person stood up and whispered to his neighbor, "Now THAT is one angry woman." He dismissed her. He dismissed her very being, not just her concerns when he detected what he considered to be anger.
I was grateful for her voice and applaud her anger if that was what she felt. It gave her the courage to remind us of our moral commitment to create a world that works for ALL of us. We shouldn't fear our anger. Anger is a healing fire when used for redemptive purposes. It powers our creativity. If we are lucky, we are transformed by it into something more beautiful, more powerful and wiser.
I'm angry these days. I am angry at a world being torn apart by division and cruelty. I am angry that our political leaders lack integrity and moral courage. I am angry that our human rights are disregarded without penalty. I am also grateful for my anger because it keeps me grounded in my hope for a better future. If I wasn't angry, I wouldn't care.
What makes you angry? When do you get mad as hell? What can you create with that for the good of all of us?
- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Prayer for the Week
Gracious God,
Your kin-dom is so different from what is valued in my world.
We worship riches and fame and power, and flashy shows of strength, but you say those advantages have no value in your kin-dom. You came as a servant, and call us to serve and honor others. You say that in our weakness, we discover our own power - power that comes from you.
We prize physical beauty, but the beauty that matters to you comes from inside. It shows up best in acts of kindness, in living with courage, integrity, and humility.
We praise the self. We live as though the universe revolves around our wants and needs, our potential, our success. But you came to radically change our worldview. You showed us how to honor our humanity and find our freedom in you.
Renew my vision of a sacred world, Lord, and help me to seek it every day. Make my vision clear. Teach me to care for the things of Love and the ways of Love over everything that's valued in the kin-dom of this world.
- (adapted from The Prayer Wheel by Patton Dodd, Jana Riess and David Van Biema)