(10.29.20—My Anger! –1 Kings 21: 1-16)
My friend, may I ask you a question? Do you practice threatening others silently by saying “Cross my path and you may face an inescapable verbal barrage of threats culminating in blindfold, cigarette and execution at sunrise?”
My friend, life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day.
I’m M. Clifford Brunner?
"Whoever came up with this idea should be shot!" Yes, from time to time those words have come from me. They are never spoken with a weapon in hand, just anger. In fact, I'm not big on firearms. I have a deep respect for what they can do so I am far more comfortable looking at them than using them. Nonetheless, I do have the rather poor habit of using those words with my imaginary firing squad frequently. I've overseen a number of such executions over the years. There was the nut that wrote the directions for putting together my gas grill. I've verbally shot drivers on the highway who've cut me off. And the well-meaning but obviously under-skilled computer engineers who design software to assist me and make my computing experience more meaningful? Let's just say they were cut down before they even had a chance to guide me to the user's manual. Incompetents beware! Cross my path and you may face an inescapable verbal barrage of threats culminating in blindfold, cigarette and execution at sunrise.
Case in point; here's a story humorist Art Hanes: "The Post Office in my local town has no local number listed. In their thrust to make things easier for me, they now provide a toll-free number and a host of helpful agents at the end of the line who are there to "help me with my every postal need." So yesterday I wanted to remove a "stop delivery" order on my mail, being back from vacation. So, I thought, I'll just call my post office and ask them to start delivering the mail again? Not on your life! I discovered that my local post office no longer had a phone number. There's a toll-free number to call. After wading through the recorded options, I ended up speaking to a live voice informing me that I could not contact my local post office since that might "inconvenience the postal clerks on duty that morning." "Bang! Rat-Ta-Tat! I went, well, postal." I dispatched the "helpful operator" somewhere in some distant customer service location: another victim to consumer rage.
Rage! When we feel that people are personally assaulting us through their incompetence, verbal murder becomes a way of life. We dispatch the offenders without so much as a thought of mercy. Bang! Another one bites the dust. Their only sin was that they crossed our path and incurred our wrath. They didn't meet our expectations, so we verbally "off" them. Rage satisfies, but rage, like an insidious, creeping disease, rots us out from the inside. This face of anger is not only dangerous to others, but it is most often the cause of our own destruction. It's one gun that is most likely to backfire in our own faces if we can't learn to control it.
We pray. Heavenly Father. When we feel that people are personally assaulting us through their incompetence, our verbal murder can easily become a way of life. Ashamedly, we dispatch the offenders without so much as a thought of mercy. Our words and thoughts put them away. Their only sin was that they crossed our path and incurred our wrath. Forgive us Lord for such anger and rage. When people don’t meet our expectations, direct and move us to avoid verbally "offing" them. Our rage satisfies for a time, but in the end, it rots us out from the inside. This face of anger is not only dangerous to others, but it is most often the cause of our own destruction. Help us to control our anger and offer forgiveness and not nasty words and evil thoughts. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.
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<thispassingday@gmail.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.