Not You

You! No, not you; you are not a hostile person by far, not a person who picks fight. You’re a Boy Scout troop leader, Friend of the Library, volunteer at the School, why just last year, you called in and donated money during one of those Christian radio fund drives.   Yet you have these moments when the worst parts of your nature come to the front. Admit it you have had moments when the world seems to be conspiring against you and the frustration builds inside you and the frustration turns to rage. Remember the morning you were running late you just wanted to get your latte and a bagel from Starbucks and run. Of course the guy in front of you in line had to spend 10 minutes talking to the woman behind the counter about that most fascinating of topics, the weather. You’re ashamed to admit it now, but you were on the verge of throwing your 10-dollar bill across the counter and screaming for service. Rage seems to be all around us lately. Look around; it’s not difficult to conclude that the world is getting angrier and angrier. Our politics is angry, Bush-haters, Clinton-haters and even Dog-haters. Our popular music is angry; our highways run like rivers of anger.  Just yesterday I was turning across traffic when the car turning ahead of me stopped. The oncoming traffic had plenty of time to stop but horns went to blowing because I was now in their way. Anger comes at breaking speeds when things don’t go our way. Remember Jonah? In Jonah chapter 4 and verses 6-11 you will find that the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head. Jonah was glad but God prepared a worm the next morning and the gourd withered. Now no shade and the sun beat upon his head and he fainted and wished he could just die even said it would be better for him to die than live.  I wonder if we have Jonah's moods. Jonah’s moods were based on circumstances that surrounded him. When God prepared a gourd for shade, Jonah was happy. When God prepared a worm and an east wind Jonah was angry. When things were going Jonah’s way his anger was under control. Just let things go wrong and he was out of control. It would be nice if everything went our way but that is not going to happen. I think if we would apologize every time we lost control and got angry I think we would think before we reacted. Proverbs 14:17  He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: When I allow the circumstances around me to control my actions then the circumstances control me and if I get angry I will deal with the matter at hand foolishly.