It's About Perspective

To the immature, correcting is always interpreted as anger. To the mature and humble, that same "wrath" is received as purifying fire. Same fire but different perspective.

Mar 13, 2026

“You’re the meanest daddy in the world!”

With that declaration, my daughter informed me that I was both unfair and unreasonable to expect her to clean up the mess she had made with the play-dough.

By the way, I’m convinced Play-Doh was invented by demons for the tormenting and temptation of parents!

From my daughter’s immature perspective, she saw no problem between her freedom to leave the living room a mess and her enjoyment of the Play-Doh. She was perfectly content to avoid any consequence and responsibility for her actions. And the fact that I, as her father, had insisted she accept responsibility and then clean up her mess meant I was mean and cruel and horrible.

But that’s the way we feel about our relationship with God at times.

Haven’t we interpreted the sad consequences of our actions as “God is angry with me, and He’s punishing me”?

When the reality is much more akin to my chickens coming home to roost! I am having to accept and deal with the natural consequences of my own actions.

Today is Friday of the Third Week of Great Lent. And the difference between seeing God’s judgment as anger or as loving correction comes down to perspective. It always is.

On a bare hill raise a signal, cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.
Hark, a tumult on the mountains as of a great multitude! Hark, an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole earth.
Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every man’s heart will melt, and they will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in travail. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.
Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make men more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

The Prophet Isaiah was a well-born man with all the right connections in society. He was probably from a wealthy family and had all the advantages in education and connections with “the powers that be.”

He put all that at risk to follow his calling as a prophet of God to say some pretty tough things to the people of Israel to wake them up from the spiritual lethargy that threatened not only their physical well-being but their very souls.

And Isaiah warns Israel in no uncertain terms that God isn’t going to ignore their spiritual apathy, their prideful actions and attitudes, and their mistreatment of each other forever.

Seriously? That sounds pretty bad!

What Can We Take From This?

First, Isaiah uses urgent language to convey the danger: the unprepared face God’s reckoning.

“On a bare hill raise a signal, cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.”

Notice how Isaiah uses words to convey the danger of the situation: raise a signal, cry aloud, wave the hand.

This is urgent. This is an alarm. This is a warning that cannot be ignored.

“Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!”

The judgment of God falls on the unprepared, and His reckoning is clear and final. To those gripped by self-centered pride, to those who are stubborn and hard of hearing, this warning sounds harsh. Terrifying. Like anger and dread.

Let’s face it: sometimes a person’s life has become so cluttered with their own selfishness that they have to have a pretty loud siren in the ear to wake them up. And to those self-centered people, any suggestion that they better start choosing differently in their lives is treated as a threat to their “freedom.”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” And “you’re not the boss of me.” And “I was born this way. You have no right to tell me I’m wrong!”

Sound familiar? Hey, the truth is I’ve said these words myself. We’ve all been teenagers after all!

Are you hearing God’s warnings as threats to your freedom? Or as urgent alarms meant to wake you up?

Next, to the immature and selfish, God’s consequences appear as terrible anger rather than loving correction.

“Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.”

To the unprepared, the prideful, and the selfish, it looks like anger and dread. To the immature and the shortsighted, God’s bringing about the confrontation with consequences is terrible and awful.

Some have concluded that this reveals the God of the First Testament and the Father revealed by our Lord Jesus were two different deities. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

What looks like “anger” to an immature and self-centered child is really the loving correction of the God who loves us more than we ourselves know how to love.

God loved the nation of Israel so much that He used His loudest siren to warn them that the consequences of their choices were going to be pretty harsh. They were going to reap what they had sown.

And, in their selfishness, they were going to attribute all those consequences to God being angry with them.

If that fear of God’s anger would wake them up, then so be it!

Isaiah told them the great and terrible day of The Lord is not going to be something you enjoy if you don’t have an internal change.

But the reality? It’s my chickens coming home to roost. I am having to accept and deal with the natural consequences of my own actions. Like my daughter having to clean up her Play-Doh mess.

Are you seeing God’s consequences as terrible anger? Or as loving correction from a Father who loves you too much to let you destroy yourself?

Finally, those who face consequences in Great Lent receive God’s judgment as the loving healing it is.

“I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.”

Here’s the difference in perspective. To those who see His love in His actions, we have already purposefully faced the consequences of our sinful choices in the spiritual work of Great Lent.

We’ve already repented. We’ve already humbled ourselves. We’ve prayed the Prayer of St. Ephraim and made our prostrations before His Face. “O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.”

We receive His judgment as the loving act it is to heal us from being less than we were created to be! The difference is perspective. It always is.

As we pass through the wisdom and spiritual reorientation of Great Lent, we are all called to grow up in our spiritual lives. We really are called to mature beyond the stubbornness of trying to do whatever we want and avoiding the consequences of our choices.

We really are called to mature past those childish days of “You’re the meanest daddy in the world” temper tantrums when we are confronted by our own lives.

This is the season when we learn to repent, look to our own sins, and refrain from judging others. We accept the wise and loving direction of a God who is far from angry with us, but who loves us too much to simply pat us on the head as a doting grandfather in light of our foolish choices.

Are you receiving God’s judgment during Lent as terrible anger? Or as loving healing that puts an end to your pride and lays low your haughtiness?

St. Christina the Martyr of Persia

Today, we commemorate St. Christina, a Christian martyr who was killed in Persia around the fourth century for her faith. She faced terrible persecution and death for refusing to deny Christ.

To her persecutors, her faith looked like stubborn rebellion. To the world, her martyrdom looked like terrible destruction. But St. Christina understood what Isaiah teaches in today’s passage.

She saw God’s judgment with the right perspective. Not as terrible anger but as loving correction that calls us to maturity. She had already faced the consequences of her choices through repentance and spiritual discipline. She had already humbled herself before God’s face.

So when persecution came, when consequences arrived, she received them as the loving act they were meant to be, to complete her transformation. She didn’t cry, “You’re the meanest daddy in the world!” She embraced the loving correction that would heal her from being less than she was created to be.

That’s Normal Orthodoxy. Hearing God’s urgent warnings instead of treating them as threats to your freedom. Seeing His consequences as loving correction instead of terrible anger. Receiving His judgment during Great Lent as healing that puts an end to your pride.

Your Response Today

Today is Friday of the Third Week of Great Lent. God is raising a signal. Crying aloud. Waving His hand to warn you.

Are you hearing it as a threat to your freedom? Are you saying, “You can’t tell me what to do”? Are you treating His loving correction as terrible anger?

Or are you mature enough to see it for what it is: a Father who loves you too much to let you destroy yourself through your foolish choices?

You have to accept and deal with the natural consequences of your own actions. Or you will never be mature enough for real, deep communion with God.

He calls you to maturity, because only a spiritually mature person can ever hope to be in real, deep communion with God.

These days of Great Lent are so precious, dear one. Don’t miss them grumbling about the easy disciplines that were taught to wake us up and reward spiritual maturity.

So receive His judgment as the loving act it is to heal you from being less than you were created to be!

The difference is perspective. It always is.

Being Orthodox on Purpose means hearing God’s urgent warnings instead of treating them as threats to your freedom, seeing His consequences as loving correction instead of terrible anger, and receiving His judgment during Great Lent as healing that puts an end to your pride and makes you mature enough for communion with God!