March 12, 2013 … The Source of Our Anger

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 71

Passage of the Day: Proverbs 29: 11 [NLT] …  
11 A fool gives full vent to anger, but a wise person quietly holds it back. 
Passage of the Day: Proverbs 29: 11 [NKJV] …  
11 A fool vents all his feelings, [or “spirit”] But a wise man holds them back. 
Passage of the Day: Proverbs 29: 11 [The Message] …  
11 A fool lets it all hang out; a sage quietly mulls it over.  
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Reference Passage #1: Isaiah 26: 3 : [God is the source of our peace.] …[NKJV] … You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You. 

Reference Passage #2: Galatians 6: 22-23 : [Choosing peace over anger is a fruit of the Spirit.] …[NLT] …  
22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. 

My Journal for Today: Ever had a time at work or at home when you let the volcano of anger erupt and for a time thereafter all relational interaction was messed up bigtime. Today Hillman quotes from Proverbs 29: 11 as the highlight truth he discusses in his devotional; and it is certainly most pertinent, as a behavioral guide, for must of us.

I would bet that most here, reading along with me, have had their Vesuvius moments, when something inside of us, personal frustration or underlying jealousy or some root of emotional tension, built up to the point it exploded in an expression of anger, which, when vented, broke down all normal communications and made human interaction very difficult, if not impossible. And Hillman had a quote for his readers about this today, which influenced him deeply. He quoted Dr. Sam Peeples, a TV screenwriter who wrote on series like Star Trek, Gunsmoke, and others. … And he wrote this…  

"The circumstances of life, the events of life, and the people around me in life, do not make me the way I am, but reveal the way I am." 

Wow! That one just punched me in the gut with conviction. How about you? And Hillman himself, in his devotional today, further writes about anger explosions, … 

“It has been said that anger is like the warning panel on the dash of your car. It is the light that tells us something is going on under the hood and we need to find out what is the source of the problem.” … Again, wow! That one really gets at the reality of anger, doesn’t it?

I can recall a time when my dad let me take over the wheel in a big city traffic when I first was learning to drive; and someone pulled in front of me rudely; and I reacted by pounding the steering wheel and yelling some almost obscenity (I never would cuss in front of my dad); and my father, quietly – as was his nature – asked me, “Did he hear you” He was trying to get me to learn that my outburst of anger had no effect on the one to whom it was directed. It only affected me. But when such an outburst is exploded in public, it does affect others and it causes severe damage to any attempts to communicate normally.

As Peeples quotes above and Hillman teaches, when we feel like exploding in anger, we should realize that the anger is but a symptom of something wrong deeper in our emotional engine which needs repair; and as today’s Proverb truthfully states, we should put a lid on our anger – especially in public interactions – until we can determine the source of the anger and possibly get an emotional repairman to help us fix the underlying cause of our near emotional eruption. I’ll let you mull over what this might mean for you.

Have you got any seething anger bubbling in your soul, about ready to erupt, at this time? If so, as a Christian, God’s word (see Isaiah 26: 3 and Galatians 5: 22-23 above) tells us that we have the Spirit-led ability to put a damper on the anger and let patience and self-control take over, … allowing us to do what it says in 1st Peter 5: 7 (and if you don’t know that one by heart, I’ll charge you to look it up and meditate on it as God’s prescription for anger).

If you need someone with Whom you can vent your anger today, GO TO THIS LINK , and let Wayne Watson’s poignant song help you to see that Jesus is always there to help you soothe over your anger and to let Him meet you where you are and to heal your scars. He is the “Friend of a Wounded Heart!”

My Prayer for Today … Lord, … thank You for giving me all I need to suppress my anger and allow You, Holy Spirit, to rule in peace in my soul. … Amen