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As I continue to reflect on my recent road rage experience, I'm realizing more and more that I have to come to terms with the reality of anger as one of our human emotions. Jesus got angry on at least 3 recorded occasions (see previous log entry), but He was never out of control. His anger was appropriate to the occasion and always contained.
I was taught from my earliest days as a Christian that anger was always a sin and should be subdued and denied no matter what the circumstance. So, wanting to do the right thing, I made no allowance for expressing any form of anger. Or, at least, I tried. That was my goal.
But then I encountered this truth: "Sometimes the sin is found in NOT getting angry"!! And guess who was cited as the ultimate example of this truth? You got it - Jesus Christ Himself! How could Jesus encounter injustice and not be angry? How could He be faced with religious hypocrisy done in the name of His Father and remain emotionally passive and unmoved?
According to Ephesians 4/26, it is possible to be angry and not to sin. No doubt there have been countless times when Christians have quoted that verse to justify their outbursts of anger and rage which have been destructive in their impact. It is their 'proof text' to justify their otherwise unjustifiable behaviour.
Yet in v.31 the directive is that we are to get rid of rage and anger. From the text it is obvious that one way we are to get rid of anger and rage is to have it resolved in a very short time - before sunset, so it would seem! This means that the kind of anger to which Paul refers is not some uncontrollable, emotional outburst. Nor is it a long term, smoldering inner rage.
So, where does that leave me as I try to resolve my behaviour towards that other driver who cut in front of me in such a dangerous manner? That question prompts a few more. If I had prior warning, would I respond the same way next time? How would I conduct myself if I was somehow to meet him and have the opportunity to recall the incident? Would I take my verbal revenge on him and call him to account? Would I apologize for the angry way in which I spoke to him and his lady friend even though I felt he had behaved badly?
One thing that scares me in all this is the amount of pent-up anger and rage that is within people and the way that much of it is expressed on the highways and byways. Little incidents that trigger huge emotional over-reactions - reactions that are out of all proportion to the event that triggered them. Maybe I just needed someone to say to me, "Hey, Mike, if that's the worst thing that happens to you today, you've had a pretty good day".
Perhaps it's a matter of perspective; looking at life from a big picture perspective rather than little incidents. The next time I get cut off in traffic, maybe I will now have a different response.
Maybe.
