I am so mad!!!
Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?” Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!” Jonah 4:9 (MSG)
Jonah had fought against God and he really was not happy with how things were turning out. He finally did what God wanted him to do and was angry at the littlest things. His shade tree was eaten by a worm and he was angry enough to die.
What has you on the edge of being angry? How can you keep the focus on the right things? How can you prevent from being mad? What do you do to keep from being angry?
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The main way to avoid anger is to find gratitude. Gratitude for the small things. Corrie Ten Boom – a missionary to China- while in prison was thankful for the lice because it kept the prison guards away and they could read the one Bible they had. I must admit I have not developed that kind or depth of gratitude. But it is when I feel grateful that anger disappears. There is an old song called count your blessings –
it may seem a bit cheesy now- but remains true “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!” If we count our blessings, if we see all that God has done, if we can see God’s love for us, we can put aside when life does not give us the shade we thing we deserve. An attitude of gratitude will solve a lot of issues, especially anger.
I get angry at injustices, malignant exploitation, and blatant stupidity or willful ignorance from people who should know better.
Corporations that go out of their way to screw over the employees and customers as a daily practice for the profit of a few make me angry. Big businesses hate Unions, but Unions wouldn’t exist if there was ethics in Capitalism. Communists make me angry because they are the other extreme; they fail to see their own sins and failures in light of how they are the complete opposite pendulum swing, where they are nothing more than collective parasites who leach off of the producers until no one has any motivation left to produce. I have been on both sides of this equation, as a business person who has seen MANY businesses use a complete lack of ethics in their daily practices, while claiming the exact opposite in a “code of conduct” book thicker than an old Duval County Yellow Pages. I have seen Union people exploit their contracts to the maximum amount of laziness allowed and then some, twisting the policies to the breaking point. Yet without unions, many of these companies under Union tyranny used to be so exploitative, they would fire you for daring to go to the bathroom, wanting a drink of water on a 100° F day, or having to call out sick with the flu.
What is common to both of these situations is Human Sin and Greed, selfishness manifest. And yet so many people working under both banners will claim that there is no sin or ultimate morality, while trying to force their own version of ‘ideals’ on one another. Human amorality should be evidence enough for the truth of God.
That is part of the willful ignorance I hate among “free thinkers”… you’re free to think about anything you want, just as long as it isn’t about declaring right from wrong on any terms outside of their own twisted, broken logic.
But I also get enraged by the willful ignorance and mediocrity that has infected the American churches on the whole. Too many people just accept things without questioning them and researching things for themselves. Why do we take one preacher’s word about what something from the Bible says or means? Or one preacher’s interpretation over another? What ever happened to public debates, public discourse and intercourse on all issues of politics and religion, government and good? Why have we become the epitome of the warnings declared by Neil Postman in “Amusing Ourselves To Death”? Being too busy to care is no excuse. Unless you are working 80 – 90 hour weeks just to survive, there is no excuse for not wanting to fact check every preacher, politician, atheist, scientist, “celebrity” or even friends and family. The amount of lies, deceptions, half-thruths, and just plain fictions that come out of my email in-box from christian friends, relatives, and associates is staggering. Christians should be setting the standard for excellence in education, debate, discussions of intellectual matters in general, and just plain being right, not being a constant fount of idiocy and Fox “News” parroting. There is even an axiom about fundamentalism that states that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between sarcastic parody of religion and quotes from actual believers. This is a SERIOUS problem with the American Churches today, particularly in evangelical circles.
My usual contacts with Atheists who want to actually have an open intellectual discussion about anything start with something along the lines of “I am so very sorry about the rest of Christianity and the things they say, do, and falsely believe; not all of us watch Rush Slimebaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’ Reiley, and drink the Flavor-Aid”. It shouldn’t have to be that way.
In the light of I Peter 3:15, I feel vindicated with righteous anger at the levels of ignorance that all of Humankind sinks to on a daily basis, but the Christians should know better, and I hold them to a higher standard. In the words of an old AT&T motto: “Once you lick the lollipop of mediocrity, you will suck forever”.
Tell me I’m wrong for being angry about that.