Anger

Anger-a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility

²¹  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable ⁾to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother^[c] will be liable ⁾to judgment; whoever insults^] his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³ So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:21-24 ESV

   This section of Scripture comes from Jesus teaching from the section of Scripture known as The Sermon on the Mount.  This section is found in Matthew 5-7 and has two distinct things that I find cool.  The first one is that this sermon is very applicable.  Jesus is explaining how one lives out their faith on a day-to-day basis and covers all the essential topics, such as anger, divorce, lust and many other things.  Jesus uses the phrase “you have heard it was said,” to refute the understanding of the day of the common practices.  Instead, Jesus explains how where are treasure is buried is important, or the meaning of taking oaths and how our word is important.  The second cool thing I found is that this sermon was not for the masses, but it was a teaching moment for His disciples.  Jesus had become a big deal and people were following Him around to see what He was going to do and say next.  In essence, Jesus was giving an in-person TED Talk to His disciples and the crowd was just eves dropping and finding out what His message is?

   Anger can be a ticking time bomb, especially for those of us who like to cram it down and not admit to it, and then it comes out and bad times or takes forms in unhealthy addictions.  I will be up front, I think there is Godly anger and things should make us mad like human sex slaves, domestic violence, child abuse and a host of other things, but this is not where I am going.  I am going down the trail that anger can be self-destructive and ruin our relationships with God and others.  I think there is a reason why Jesus made the connection between anger and murder and here is some observations on this.

    My first observation is that we think our anger some how will change other people’s actions, intentions or speech.  If we get angry enough and we throw things and shout really loud, people will change.  In the last year, in Minnesota, we have had two police officers charged in the deaths of unarmed Black men.  Following these deaths, there have been protest, marches along with looting and destruction.  Both sides have drawn a line in the sand and are yelling at the other side to change their ways and there is a lot of words of anger and pain thrown at both sides by both sides. I think the crux of this anger comes down to two major points.   One, is that both sides feel that they are not being heard, which only intensifies the yelling and hatred.   This anger tries and change intentions of ones actions, speech and how one sees the world. We are trying to murder their intentions so they can be change to think and look like us.  How often are we angry with other people’s intentions and biases and we forget to check our own?

   My second observation is that we often fail to see that other people have value and are created in the image of God.  How often does our anger belittle people or treat them as second class citizens? Our anger often gives us a sense of arrogance and that we are better than another person or group of people.  We think our way is better and we try and beat other people into seeing things are way or that people somehow are to serve us.  This anger often leads to us belittle them, taking every chance to destroy or kill their self-worth, honor and character.  We tend to manipulate the message to make them look like the bad person and that we are always right and our intentions are always pure, or at least purer than other peoples. 

  My third observation is that anger tends to leads to alienation.  How often does our anger cause us to either shut down and be non-responsive.  Instead of attacking, we pull back and we break off all relationship with that person.  We don’t discuss what is the matter.  We would rather kill the relationship take care of the problem.  Is there that one family member that when the two of you are together it gets rather quiet and the temperature in the room drops about twenty degrees.  Someone has let the hate and anger build up so much, that whatever was the issue is, has gotten bigger and often out of out of control to the point that the original story is no where to be found and we have manipulated our hate and anger based on lies, and half truths that we told ourselves or have listened to.  If we let it fester, it will only get worse, and the truth gets more watered down until it vanishes.

   How often in our anger do we have conversations and we forget to invite the other person we are angry with into the conversation.  It could be a running conversation in our head or we are venting to someone else about our said anger towards a particular person or group of people.  Here is something that I have noticed in my own life when I do this in my head, my victory is always great and that the other person does not stand a chance and my justifications are always right and theirs are always wrong.  When we vent to another person, we tend to do it to people who see things are way, or we try and manipulate them into seeing things our way.  So when we do this, it often leads to two results.  The first one is that our anger is some surface level feeling that is covering up something deeper, such as guilt, shame or even remorse.  The second one is that we are killing any chance of fixing what the issues that are leading to anger because we will not confront the issues or anger in a healthy way

   My fourth observation is that how often to we try and pay God off.  We can not be in right relationship with God and hate our brothers and sisters.  God commands that if we are going to be in right relationship with Him, we have to take care of our anger and hate issues with the people we interact with on a daily basis. When we have offended someone, or mistreated them, it is our responsibility to go and seek forgiveness and start the reconciliation process. I think we need to seek peace, peace and understanding in our relationship with others.  In essence we need to listen to understand and not listening to respond.  When we listen to respond, we are about portraying a certain message or look and it is often not the message that is needed or wanted. Seeking reconciliation takes courage, guts and it wont happen overnight. 

   I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but I hope so.  I will leave you all with some closing thoughts.  The first one, there is a difference between Godly anger and human anger and we need to know the difference.  The second one is that God is the only one that can change hearts and attitudes no matter how much of a keyboard warrior we are.  We have our responsibility in the process, but God is the lead person that can make it happen.  My final thought is this and it is a paraphrase of a quote from the movie by Denzel Washington’s character in Remembering the Titans which is

We might not all like each other, but we will respect each other

If I could change this quote up a bit, I would change out the word respect with love.  Like and love are two different things, and God calls us to love each other with His love and the only way that is possible is through His grace and a changed heart.  If we were left to love on our own, our love becomes conditional or contractual and that is not love, it is obligation.  The difference is that love is doing something because we want to and obligation is a sense of have to or being forced to.

Questions to Ponder

  How much of our anger issues come from a lack of trust?

  Is there a particular person you need to have a personal conversation with instead of carrying

     One on in your head with them?

   Why do we make hate more tolerable than murder?

Fickle

Fickle- changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
    sitting on a donkey's colt!”

John 12:12-15 ESV

  I remember being in a New Testament class in college and we were going over this passage and it struck me that the nation of Israel was singing Jesus praise on Sunday and by Thursday night, they were chanting crucify Him.  I remember asking the professor why the such quick turnaround by the people, and his response was because people are fickle.  That comment has always stuck with me and the years since, I have noticed how people can be fickle, myself included.  So here are my few observations on what it means to be fickle. 

   My first observation is that fickleness is often a result of not having a backbone.  People who tend not to have a backbone tend to change their opinion like the weather.  Some people are so bad, that if you don’t like what they are spouting or standing for, talk to them after they are online for twenty minutes researching any hot button topic.  Not having a back bone could mean one of two things.  The first one is ones reasoning and logic skills are so underdeveloped that they jump from one reason to another.  This source of reasoning comes down more to flash and what is appealing or popular rather than truth or fact.  The second reason is, is that people care more about what other people think.  In essence they want to be liked by a particular group of people, so they adhere to the ideas of the group.  In essence it is group think and we do it so we have some form of validation and respect even though it is fake.

   My second observation about fickleness is that how the minority can change the whole dynamic of the group.  With the Triumphal Entry and Jesus, the religious leaders wanted Jesus gone, preferably dead, but at least not causing waves.  They were doing it because they enjoyed the status with the Roman Empire.  They were free do as they please as long as they minded their own business and didn’t cause any trouble.  They saw Jesus as a threat to their peace, comfort and status with the Roman Empire.  The religious leaders started a smear campaign against Jesus, causing people to question His authority and their way of living.  When seeds of doubt and lies start getting planted, how often do we seek the truth, and how often do we become the conspiracy theorist.  We tend to take those seeds of doubt and lies and with it until we find something else comes along that sounds better.  Fox News, CNN and just about every other news and satire outlet make millions doing this.  This is how they are able to stay on the air, because they know the news they promote may have a kernel of truth to it to make it believable but twist it in such a way that the facts are long gone and it leaves people divided and in shouting matches online or in person.

   My third observation about fickleness is who do you trust.  Our beliefs and actions show ourselves and a world that is watching who or what we trust.  Do we only trust ourselves, the mob mentality of culture or the wisdom of the Creator.  If I am going to watch a Jerry Bruckheimer movie (director of Top Gun, Armageddon and others), I know there are going to be big explosions, questionable acting and a few naughty words.  When you trust someone or something, you are letting them or that thing speak into your life and impact it in ways that could bear eternal consequences.  If we trust ourselves and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, it leads to an unhealthy self reliance that is not good or Biblical.  Relying on others to what we think can lead to group think which can be dangerous.  Also, others are humans too, just as sinful and fallen as we are.  The only way to go is trusting Jesus.  Not only is He the author and perfector of the faith, but He is the Creator which means He has authority over all.  When we are fickle, we tend to lead ourselves and others astray, no matter how good our intentions are.  Jesus is the only one that can give us a firm foundation to stand on and we don’t have to go jumping from idea to idea because He doesn’t change.  Cultural truths changes with the generations but the Truth of Jesus never changes.  How it is presented may change, but the core message stays the same, which is that there is a Creator that loves us, and creation, no matter how fallen or self destructive we are or can be, we are worth redeeming because we are created in the image of God and that is worth redeeming.

   I will finish off with this quote that is attributed to such people as Alexander Hamilton, Peter Marshall and others.  That is “if we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything.”  Not being fickle means that we stop being so gullible and we grow up and mature.  We use the brain that God gave us to reason things out, while listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit and following that lead.  That backbone is not bowing down to the ever changing culture and sticking to the time tested truths that God has set up before the earth was created.

Commitment

Commitment: the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity;

 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin,^[b] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

John 11”14-16 ESV

  Let me ask an important question and that is, what is your commitment level?  No matter what we are involved in, work at, or participate in, we have a commitment level.  The levels vary anywhere to totally committed or all in to you not wanting to touch it with a twenty foot pole.  Our commitment level often determines our effort level and our attitude effort are high and we go at it with full gusto.  There are times when we may not want to do it, but we still give it all and get it done.  One of the people I follow on Insta Gram is Farm Fit Mamma (I think her real name is Amanda) combines fitness and the farm life.  She is so dedicated that she puts out motivational and informational videos to show how she goes about how to eat and exercise.  She even created online groups to provide encouragement and accountability to other woman to want to make lifestyle changes.  The opposite side of this laziness.  The only way something gets done is because one has to do it, and is just avoiding the consequences.  It tends to get done half assed and these type of commitment are the people are usually the last ones in and first ones out.  If they can get someone else to do it, they can find some great excuse why it didn’t get done.  Lets explore several different kinds of commitment that are found through out the New Testament that I think are worth looking at.  Now this is not an exhaustive list and there probably more, but these are the ones that are jumping out at me right now. 

   The first one an apathetic commitment.  We can see this in our Scripture passage above and the Thomas is the perfect example of it.  Lazarus, who happens to be a follower of Jesus and also a dear friend has died, and for whatever reason Jesus waited a few extra days to go to Lazarus house.  Thomas statement is telling, because he probably heard the rumors and the gossip that the religious leaders wanted Jesus to at least disappear or even die.  Thomas statement is telling because he was telling the world that yes, he was committed to the cause of Jesus, and will do what is required of Him, but don’t ask him to go above and beyond.  I think the apathetic commitment is all about the have to and not want to or there is some sort of expectation by themselves or others that they do this.  There is no joy, happiness, and they are there either because they invested to much, or they can’t find anything better because they don’t try. The phrase “I’m here” applies to this form of commitment.

    The second form of commitment is the flash.  These people get excited about a cause and show their loyalty to it, either until there is some sort of adversity or the fuel runs out.  They either do not count the cost of the said commitment, or they are not wise with their time and energy and they burn out.  The perfect example of this is the Apostle Peter.  He told Jesus that he would follow Him anywhere even to death.  When it was time for the rubber to hit the road and Peter was following behind Jesus during His trial and beatings, Peter flat out denied knowing Jesus three times.  In essence they are there until it cost them something great and then they are out.  To paraphrase the famous line from the Bad Boys movie trilogy there is no riding together and dying together because someone ends up jumping out of the car.

   The third form of commitment is a silent committed.  They are committed, but they don’t want anyone to know, because they are afraid of the backlash and consequences.  These type of commitments usually lurk in the background doing things and often are never seen or heard from, but you see there work.  The perfect example of this Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus,  they were apart of the religious leadership and if they privately went to Pilate to get the body of Jesus so they could bury Him in a new tomb before the Sabbath.  were caught burring Jesus in a new tomb, there would have been at least a bad social stigma attached to them.  This kind of commitment, people are often more worried about reputation than character. 

   The fourth form of commitment is all in.  I wish I had a better name for it, but this type of person is committed to the cause, does not matter the cost and they perform their duties to the best of their abilities.  It often goes from being forced to do it, wanting to do it, to needing to do it.  The all in commitment is not about me and look what I am doing, but it is about the cause.  Most of these people go unnoticed and never get fully recognize for the work they do.  One Biblical example of this is Simon of Cyrene.  I know this might be a stretch, but here me out.  Jesus was so weak where He could not carry His own cross, so Simon did to the place where Jesus was crucified.  There has to be some sort of commitment level to publicly carry the cross of an alleged anarchist and who everybody wanted dead.   Being committed sometimes mean doing something that isn’t popular and you will get scorned for.  I think of Rosa Parks who was suppose to sit at the back of the bus, but chose to sit up front and chose to show the value that all people have, and not just a particular groups of people.

    To finish up this blog, being fully committed means that we bear our cross.  This means that at times we do things, that aren’t easy, fun, and counter cultural and we will be mocked for.  We are all fully committed to something, is it being lazy, apathetic, or all in.  In essence we are all obedient to something or someone, and is that to ourselves, others, or God.  There is only one that provides the endurance, strength and adds value not only to our life but also the lives of others, and that is fulling bearing our cross and being obedient to what God has called us to do.