Saturday, June 11, 2016

Anger

This is not a new post... It is one I found while looking for something else.  Since changing computers, everything is filed in a rather random way which I don't like on my new MAC....so as I find things I have written, I plan to post them here even if the dates are inaccurate... just so I can find them again.   I think I might have written this ten years ago...because it has been at least 10 years that I have been deliberately "dropping anger" and receiving what comes from the hand of God.

I also mention my goal to "challenge the falacious assumption", without really clarifying what I mean by that.  What I mean is that often conclusions are based on false assumptions. Statements are made, which would be true if the assumption they were based on were true...but it's not.... Like, affordable housing will solve the problem of people living in a tent city at City Hall. It won't...because there are large variety of reasons that people are indigent, not just one. (this is just one current example...of many possible....but I'm sure, at the time of writing, I was thinking more of assumptions about the nature of God....than current events.  Anyhow...here is the post, just as relevant to me now as then.



Several times lately the words of a long forgotten pre-school song from when our kids were toddlers have come back to me.  I remember thinking that they were silly words for little children as they were unlikely to ever understand the meaning.

Root them out, Get them gone,
All the little bunnies in the fields of corn
Anger, jealousy, malice and pride,
They shall never in my heart abide.

Isn't it interesting that what we learn by rote as children sometimes comes back to us profoundly as adults.  If we could really learn to love as Father does, there would be no place for these "bunnies" in our "corn".

There were a few years when our girls were young teens when it seemed they were on a cycle of anger with each other......offending and then being offended.  I sometimes thought (and told them) how wonderful it would be if one day  one of them would just skip their turn.  Simply not take up the offence, and so not have a reason to lash back.  

Have you ever noticed how profound a difference a reaction makes? If you make a little Faux Pas in traffic say, thoughtlessly drive the limit in the fast lane (as I have been known to do at times - even though everyone knows you're supposed to go 20K over the "limit") and someone zooms up behind you and honks their horn to force you over and then gives you the finger as they fly past you..............  And then there are those people who just smile and wave at you, knowing they have at times probably been guilty of the same crime.

Then there are the door-holders.  They see you coming with your arms full and they hold the door for you and smile and say good morning.  What a wonderful thing they do!  These are the kind of acts which cycle.  That is, you are more likely then, to greet the next person with a smile or an act of kindness.  But when someone is cranky with you it can start a cycle too....you can think about it all day and drop little acid rain on whomever you meet.

My double barrelled new years resolution this year is to:
1. challenge the falacious assumption, (clashing worldviews) and
2. give up anger, contempt, and condemnation

It is a real balancing act to do #1 without doing #2.  It is difficult to do #1 in love and meekness.  I think the key is that I just need to challenge not to necessarily win or fix or even correct.  

If I can really learn to love, I will have #2 beat.  Until then, the key for me has been to simply give up these reactions.  I have asked Father to help me by flagging these reactionary emotions for me.  They rise up so automatically and easily,  and it is such a relief to just deliberately "let them go".  It is even quite humorous at times.  One time  I was talking to Leroy about something that got me going with anger, and I could see that he was picking up my offence with me.  ( it was so important I can't remember what it was now)Then I told him how Father had flagged my anger and put the thing in perspective for me........and I noticed a visible relief come over Leroy's countenance.  It was like taking his blood pressure.   First I pumped him up till he was tight enough to be almost alarming and then I just released the pressure and he just sighed and sagged with relief.  I thought, "How many times have I caused poor Leroy to pick up my offence with me, when I should have just given it up?"

Anyhow, now I have given you the impression that I am a seething volcano of anger, and that's not really accurate.  However, Father has been showing me that "the wrath of man does not work Father's rightness."  As I often do, I have asked Father to do for you what I have asked him to do for me.....to flag anger, contempt, and condemnation when it arises in you so that you can deliberately drop them and replace with love, mercy, humility, esteeming others, etc., and that your own joy and peace of heart will be multiplied as you do.


This whole issue is related, I think, to the increase of His government of which you spoke in your recent email.  Dallas Willard in his book, The Div. Conspiracy, which has been so useful to me the last few years, describes "His kingdom" as "the range of His effective will".  May it ever increase in our lives and in our world!

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