Personal background

When trauma at my own sin and the failures of other Christians seems to cause me to lapse into uncontrolled anger, am I being unAustralian? Or is this typical of a deeply repressed aspect of our national psyche? God has been speaking to me very pointedly about who we really are as a people.

The Real Australia

This Australia Day we drove past Cottesloe Beach where the World Record for the longest line of inflatable air beds was broken. Most of these were in the shape of thongs in our national colours. This easy going image of a laid back and care free people is the picture we love to portray to ourselves and the world.

Something however in last weekend’s newspaper spoke sharply to my heart about the deeper dimensions of our culture[1]. The article, “Disaster heartbreak breeds its own cycle of violence” reported that after the Victorian bushfires there was an explosion of men from the emergency services plunging into depression, threatening suicide and beating their partners. Unable to cope with feelings of guilt and helplessness about who they could not save they struck out violently at those closest to them. The article concludes with these words from a battered wife whose husband came home a “different man”: “When I went to Centrelink a year after the fires to request single-parent benefits, I was told I was the 410^th person to report a separation….My story is the tip of the iceberg.” The Lord spoke to me incisively as I read this; firstly he said “This is how Australians really are (angry)”. Secondly and more painfully he uttered, “This is you.” i.e. ME.

Traumatic experiences do not cause violence, they simply provide the conditions for what is already there under the surface to intensify and break out into the open. These “Aussie blokes” who turned into wife-beaters were men overwhelmed by a feeling of senseless suffering that seemed so unjust that they could not control their rage against the power responsible for all they were experiencing. Their true anger was not against the destructiveness of nature, or their own impotence, nor was it really directed against their wives but against God the Maker of all![2] As the Lord spoke to me about these things I could sense the deep level of buried anger that Australians as a people have against the heavenly Father. This is hardly obvious but it is completely true at a profound spiritual level[3].

A Wise Father?

Something rose up from deep within my spirit as I prayed over these things. I sensed an inner voice saying, “A wise Father would make sure….”, but the conclusion of the sentence was left hanging because Aussies do not experience God as a wise Father.

Every human being is inundated by multiple crises of life: from the rarity of natural disasters to the commonplace trauma of dysfunctional families, separation and divorce, to abusive and controlling leaders and so on. In ourselves none of us can cope with these things, deep down is a raging passion against a blind and deaf “God” (Rom 1:18, 30; 8:7; Col 1:21) who is either unaware or uncaring about the impossible burdens of human life.

A little later my sentence was completed, “A wise Father would make sure… all his children know him as an all seeing and knowing God who is aware of the burdens they carry in dealing with the impossible demands of life”. Only Jesus can reveal such wisdom (1 Cor 1:24).

Jesus Help ME

The terrible cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) proclaims that Jesus has entered into the traumatised state of our humanity overwhelmed by a sense of injustice at the senseless pain in the world, and abandoned by a blind and deaf ‘God’. The difference between Jesus and us, the reason why he never lashes out in selfish anger against anyone, is that he suffers and dies for the glory of God (John 12:23-28). The proof that God is truly an all seeing and hearing Father is the resurrection (Heb 5:7-8).

If only we can accept that the traumatic crises of life can lead to a higher purpose, the glory of God, we will definitely NOT have a problem with anger in our lives. The truth, “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:27) means we can pray again and again to the power of him who lives in us, “Jesus help ME, Jesus help ME.”Apart from faithfully waiting for Jesus to answer our prayers and deliver us, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5).

Is This Fair?

Australia is famous for being the land of “fair dinkum” and a “fair go”; but underneath it all our strong godlessness reveals that we do not believe God is fair.  The call of Jesus means to follow him believing by faith without sight that his Father has a wise purpose in everything that happens in life (2 Cor 5:7; Eph 1:11). Through the lens of the cross we can see that only our personal and national traumas can bring us to a place of weakness and self loathing that confesses that the meaning of life is not found in ME but in the glory of God alone. This is the pathway to eternal life.

Conclusion

I feel the teaching of this article is unbelievably countercultural and contradictory of everything Aussies love to believe about themselves. At heart we cannot believe that we are a deeply angry people. This is as true inside the Church as outside; but unless we see what the Lord sees our nation cannot be saved.

At one level, to be a Christian is to be unAustralian, for to be a follower of the crucified King means to receive injustice and trauma for the glory of God. At a deeper level however believers in the wisdom of the cross can image peace in the midst of apparently useless suffering. Such a testimony  proclaims that there is a Fair Dinkum Father who sees and hears every one of our helpless cries and is ever ready to pour out comfort and compassion (2 Cor 1:3-6). This is what our nation so desperately needs. Such a revelation of limitless compassion is beyond my present experience, but I sense this is what the Lord wants to give to us all.