Danny ChaiMy pastor had me read Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions recently. Pretty interesting. One stuck out to me though. In the midst of all these amazing resolutions about using every moment of time for God’s glory, put every thought and deed heavenward, there’s this random resolution 15: “Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.”
I find that fascinating. Why was this issue so important? Why such a big deal to not get angry at “irrational beings?” No clue. But I totally resonate. I get unreasonably upset at perceived illogic.
Similarly, misinformation drives me crazy. I have no idea why I’m like this. When I was a kid, I read this book my dad had called the Dictionary of Misinformation that basically debunked a lot of commonly held beliefs. I stopped reading it because it made me a terrible conversation killer. It’s no fun going around constantly telling people what they think is demonstrably wrong. Like bagpipes are not a Scottish invention. Who really cares? No one I informed, that’s for sure.
But it still bothers me. Like, some random person left this ridiculous comment on Jieun’s page about how the Ivy League has nothing to do with ivy, how the name comes from there being 4 (IV) original schools. Totally false info, which you could find out with a cursory web search (e.g. see the Wikipedia entry which specifically addresses this false idea). Ivy League started with 8 schools and the name very much has to do with the ivy plant.
For some reason, the fact that this misinformation was being disseminated drove me crazy. Same thing with all the random chain emails that go around every so often. Drives me nuts. Zero idea why it’s such a big deal to me.