Jump Start # 1106

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

  I’ve been doing some thinking about anger. Odd topic to think about. I’m working on a sermon about anger. One of the things I’ve discovered is that we don’t THINK about anger, we just get angry. There are different degrees of anger, and we can feel those in ourselves. What some may call “being upset” others may label as a mild form of anger. High prices, especially of gas, upset us. Buying things and then finding out it doesn’t work, upsets us. Kids calling from school because they forgot a paper or book, this is after we reminded them, upsets us. Having appointments cancelled upsets us. Upsets are typically short lived and we get over them. Most of us can not remember what upset us five years ago. We don’t keep “upsets” stored in our memory file.

But that’s not the extent of anger. It intensifies. What others do can really make us angry. The feeling that you were taken advantage of, ripped off, made fun of, teased beyond the limits, or even hurt, can make us explode with words we would never normally say and even violent actions. Anger is like a volcano inside of us. It can erupt and spew all kinds of nastiness upon those around. I’ve seen people storm out of stores angry. I’ve seen fingers pointed in the face of others. In sports, the level of competition is so high that competitors often blow up. In baseball, a batter charges the pitcher’s mound. In hockey, the gloves fly off as the fists start swinging. In motorsports, drivers will throw their helmets at a car they think is responsible for knocking them out of the race.

Our verse today follows the godly principle of being quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger. Then he adds, anger does not accomplish anything pleasing to God. It does not make us more Christ-like. It doesn’t put noble thoughts into our minds. It doesn’t make our faith grow stronger. No, anger does just the opposite. We lose ground with anger. What often follows is a series of apologies because we said things that we should not have. That’s what anger does.

Much too often, we get the preceding verse mixed up. Instead of being quick to hear, we are slow to hear. Instead of slow to speak, we are quick to speak, even interrupting the other guy and making our mind up before we hear everything. Then, of course, we are not slow to anger, but with a short fuse, we explode quickly and easily.

I’ve noticed that an angry person speaks loud and rapid. He loves to get close to your face, nose to nose. An angry situation is volatile. It can quickly turn ugly. There are many things that make us angry. Co-workers, family members, church members, politicians, decisions that we feel were not fair nor thought out, injustice, cheating and on and on we could go, listing all the things that make us angry.

Now, the bigger thought is what do we do with all this anger? It certainly isn’t helping us spiritually. That’s what the verse is telling us. Anger is crippling us. It hurts our family. It’s a terrible image for children to witness. It leads to trouble at church. It causes some folks to quit a job and look for work elsewhere. Anger doesn’t help us.

We remember our Savior’s words: turn the other cheek…do unto others…seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…those words are the foundation principles to the Christian character. Those words remind us to move our thoughts and feelings off of self. Peter tells us that Jesus left an example as He suffered. He uttered no threats in return. He was not like those around Him. He chose to be the way He was.

That’s what bothers me the most about anger. The moment of anger clouds our thinking and we forget to chose the right way. We let anger take over. It runs our emotions, thoughts and feelings. It ruins us. We’ve lost control because of anger.

It might help to back out of a situation and gain control of yourself. In some settings, it is possible to get back to issue at hand at another time. Having a verbal battle at 1:30 in the morning with a teenager probably won’t go well. Get sleep. Calm down. Think out your words. Pray hard. Then, the next day, have a discussion. This isn’t always possible. But when it is, this is the best way. Give time to listen. Give time to speak. Let anger subside. The more tired we are, the worse we feel and the more easily anger takes over. Sometimes we hear a few key words and that’s all that we need to hear before our blood starts to boil. Listen first. Listen well.

Have you ever noticed how many people are angry? You see them everywhere. The angry person isn’t happy. They aren’t smiling. They are worked up and about to explode.

God expects more from His people. Being in control in an out of control world is hard. Staying calm when others are blowing up all around you is hard. Hard is not a reason for not doing what God wants. Hard it is, but impossible it is not. It’s hard to have a conversation with an angry person. They don’t want to listen. They are not following James’ words of being quick to hear and slow to speak. It takes two to argue. If someone insists of shouting, being angry, walk away. If and when they can talk about things calmly, then do it. I’ve had to leave Bible studies because the person I was talking to wouldn’t listen and was exploding.

Most of us can look back and realize that the moments we were angry were not our best moments. We are embarrassed to remember those times. The line between discipline and abuse is often crossed when a person is angry. It’s harder to see that line when your eyes are bulging with anger.

You cannot choose what will happen to you today, but you do choose how you will respond to it. Anger is not a good choice. You feel it coming. It comes quickly. Deal with it quickly. Pray about it. Find positive answers. Don’t let it simmer and dwell in you. Anger is a short bridge to hatred, hostility and sin.

Let you mind dwell upon pleasant things. Listening to angry music puts you in the mood to be angry. Watching angry movies does the same. Hanging around angry people only puts you in the position to learn their evil ways. Proverbs warns about associating with an angry person. So don’t. Even if it’s your brother or cousin. You don’t need that stuff in your life. You don’t need to take over his problems.

Anger doesn’t achieve the righteousness of God. Get that. Stay away from it as much as you can.

Roger