The Terrain of Wrath vs Severe Mercy

  This is Part 4 of the "Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins", continuing the theme of describing the terrain that will be used for Catharsis Hall, an interactive Bible-study/game that helps us to address our problems before our problems deal with us. Everything in Catharsis Hall is a metaphor for what we deal with in our lives. And depending on the player, different things may reveal themselves. But I am helping lay out the foundation of what kind of terrain we may face depending on whether God is ruler of our lives or if sin is ruling our lives. Part 1 of this series dealt with Pride vs Humility. Part 2 dealt with Lust vs Intimacy. Part 3 dealt with Slothfulness vs Rest. And here in Part 4, I will deal with Wrath vs Severe Mercy.

  My friend who is the one doing the primary development of Catharsis Hall asked me a very interesting question last week when I was visiting with him. "What drives God's mercy? His love or his wrath?" We too often think about God's mercy and God's love being part of the same coin. But this question got me thinking and I could not find a reason against it. We have all heard the phrase "all bark, and no bite". But another quote my friend gave me that is truly appropriate here. He could see God saying "I bark because I fear my bite. And you should too." As much as we fear and dread hell, we don't nearly as much as God dreads us having to endure it. He knows what separation from him is going to entail and he knows his purity, his character, and his justice MUST punish the sin. He knows he has to throw the switch and I see now that God's mercy is not just driven by his love for us, but by his knowledge of what his wrath would do to us without it.

  Now Wrath is a tricky topic because it is the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins that actually has a Godly form. Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Envy, Gluttony, and Greed don't have a Godly form. They have a Godly opposite, but not a Godly form. Godly wrath is directed at sin and that which is associated with it. But because of our sin, our wrath is often misdirected. When I was thinking about what kind of terrain we would see wrath in, the first picture that came to mind is a volcano. My friend had a picture of steam which is also appropriate. Steam is a powerful metaphor. Water is a very powerful force. Fire is also a very powerful force. But when combined, you get steam. Steam is more powerful than the two forces of water and fire combined. Water is love. Fire is hate, preferably geared in the right direction. Steam is passion. And when someone messes with something we love, that passion can turn up the heat VERY quickly. But an interesting observation of steam is that with all steam based technology, when ever there is a disaster or a malfunction, it is always due to mishandling the machinery, as opposed to the steam itself that will cause it. Wrath has the same function.

  So keeping with the metaphor that the land is a metaphor of our body, our mind, our emotions, etc, when we deal with Wrath, we are dealing with a volcanic terrain. Mountainous but like any volcano, it could explode. Volcanoes remain dormant or have mild eruptions when they have appropriate vents for the heat and pressure. When we see or experience and injustice, wrath builds up like the pressure of a volcano. And if the vents are not open as they should be, it can turn a volcano from a life-bringing mountain to a terrifying bomb. Lava has a very interesting property in that when it covers land, it destroys the old stuff with fire. But the plants and forests that are burned down from a lava flow tend to grow back VERY quickly and will be much healthier than it was beforehand. There is a secret to Resurrection that many of us forget and don't want to face. There is nothing that if it is not dead, it cannot be brought back to life.However, if the appropriate vents are plugged up, the volcano cannot release its pressure and heat for a good, healthy eruption that will grow new life. There is no Resurrection if it first does not die. But if those vents and releasing of pressure are not set and open, our volcano becomes another Mt. St. Helens.

  When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it destroyed the landscape. The mountain itself dropped in height by about 1300 feet. The whole top of the mountain totally blew off and it will never return to what it was beforehand. There is more to the eruption than just the top blowing off. Two major things followed. A pyroclastic flow, which is the cloud of super-hot ash that incinerates everything upon contact. And a la-hare. A la-hare is the deadliest form of mudflow. Mt. St. Helens had a glacier on top of the mountain and when it erupted, all that ice and water melted quickly and flowed downhill. This water mixed with the dirt, rocks, mud, trees, and any other form of debris it picked up to form what was like fast moving concrete, carving a new canyon on a 1/20th scale of the Grand Canyon literally overnight. It was permanent damage, despite the fact that the forests have regrown since.

  Mt. St. Helens gives a perfect picture of what wrath can do to us. If we harbor it, it will erupt violently when we least expect it. And though we may calm down and not explode for a long time, when we erupt, it will permanently scar us AND those around us. We may heal from that, but those scars will remain. But if God rules our land, he will use the same volcano to burn away what should not be there to plant new growth and new life.

  Two other things I've mentioned that goes with volcanic terrain: glaciers and geysers. Glaciers have a two-way effect. They are cold as ice (pun intended) and our anger, our wrath, and our bitterness can easily be just as cold. It cuts off life, it ever changes, and it is easy to get lost in. A glacier often has numerous brutal crevasses, some that we see, and some that we don't. And those crevasses may not be possible to get out. You do not want to enter tunnels in a glacier unless you have no other choice. The reason why is because of the ever changing nature of the glacier. You may enter a tunnel even if you have a line all the way back, you may not be able to get out because it could change on you. Anger is like this. It is easy to get lost in it and to get trapped in it. And wrath entangles us so well and it is very difficult to see how to escape from it. And Wrath is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins for a reason: because it is often deadly. And this terrain describes how deadly it can be. But a glacier does more than kill. It is a provider of fresh water. Glacier water is some of the purest water we can find on the planet. It is cold, but it is pure. This is an example of Wrath leading to Severe Mercy. It is using a very dangerous thing that can only be used rightly when God is in control of it to provide life.

  The other thing is a geyser. Hot water, or a hot springs. Water naturally heated by geothermal activity underneath. Steam power transformed the US in the 1800's, launching us into the Industrial Revolution. The Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, Colorado were often a place to go for healing. The hot waters would sooth the body and help to fight illnesses we could not fight otherwise. In this terrain, there would be hot springs that we could turn to for healing. That is God's severe mercy which is fed by his wrath.

  There is more to all this, but that is all I can wrap my head around right now, even with the notes I have. Wrath is destructive, but Severe Mercy can use destruction to wipe out that which is destructive and create new life. It is the same material. The same terrain. But the results depend on who rules it. Is our passion going to be a life-giving action that will destroy the sin that eats at us and gives new life, or will it turn us into a Mt. St. Helens that is ready to explode when the right triggers shows up? That is Wrath vs Severe Mercy. Next is Part 5: Envy vs External Provision. That one is going to hit a few people rather hard once we realize what we do with it.