Ya know what makes me Angry?
STUPID PEOPLE, STUPID THINGS and STUPID SITUATIONS!!
What makes them stupid?
They’re not right, they’re out of place and they don’t make sense.
I don’t understand them, I don’t agree with them and I can’t stand being around them.
Why do they do things that way? Why are they over there? What was that comment about?
When I do something I do it the right way and when I say something it’s right, based on facts.
They should wake up and get it right or leave the planet.
Driving too slow? Flip them the bird. Say the wrong thing? Tell them they’re full of it. Make the wrong decision? Tell them what part of anatomy they are.
You know what? Forget about it! I don’t want to discuss it anymore. Even the thought of them makes me angry. I don’t want to think about them, talk about them or see them again. They don’t deserve to be alive.
This was very much the way I went through each day of my life when I let anger control me. Anger sprouted up into bitterness and rage and I let it control every brain cell and nerve in my body. It took me over, guided my actions and was very obvious to those around me. So much so, that my nick name was, “The Hulk”. My friends said that as they saw me get angry it was as if they could see my clothes shrinking on me as my anger welled up inside me. If I was in a fight with someone, I often had to be pulled off of them because I had lost all sense of what was enough.
Why?
Because it was all about me. My way of thinking, doing, saying, being, playing, working, driving and living. If you weren’t with me you were against me, in my way and therefore you didn’t matter.
That was before Jesus got a hold of me.
Jesus doesn’t call those idiots “stupid”, He says that they don’t know what they do. He moves in to their life and gives them direction. As I read the gospel’s I see that Jesus never walks into a situation evaluating how it is affecting Him, but rather, walks in seeing how He can affect the situation. Learning to live my life this way has made a tremendous difference, not only in my life but in those around me. Extending the grace of Jesus to those around you allows you to live out the scripture commands to “Love your neighbor” and “To do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Imagine the guy who cut you off is rushing to the hospital because he just got word that his daughter was in a car accident. Or, imagine, the woman who is driving so slow is having a heart attack. Would it be right to show them how stupid they are by pulling around them and cutting them off so that they run into a light pole? How about punching out the manager who refuses to give you a raise in pay because he cut the “pay increase” budget so that nobody loses their job.
We never know all the facts, as much as we think we do. When we put ourselves first we fail to even let the facts be a possibility. When we live evaluating how everything impacts us, it will not lead to a good place, but if we evaluate looking for ways that we can impact the situation we have opportunity to love our neighbor.
Consider the following verses: