|
Original Christian artwork: Illustration of a woman
furious with some circumstance of life.
Anyone can get angry and most of us do. There are people
of various opinions and convictions who really believe that they
never become angry. I don't that solves the problem any
more than the person who vents at every little thing.
Unfortunately, I lean ore toward the latter of the two extremes.
Life happens. God happens. Other people happen.
Anything can happen on any given day. If we are looking
for reasons to be unhappy or angry, we will not lack for
opportunities. Almost nothing good ever happens in this
world without difficulty and effort. Sometimes a lot of
effort and a lot of trouble. The better attitude, I think,
must be to want the good enough (and to believe it can really
happen) to keep going, no matter what.
Jesus mentions bearing good fruit with patience in the
illustration He gives (Luke, chapter 8) of a person sowing seed.
That always stands out to me when I read that passage of
Scripture. Good does not come as the result of lazy habits
or temper tantrums. It comes as a result of hard work and
learned skills, and a patient persistence that says, "No matter
what it takes, I'm going to see this through, I'm going to get
this done, I'm going to make this happen."
Now, obviously, if God does not want a thing to happen it will
not happen. But many of the very things God Himself sets
us to doing require all our best efforts and all the patience we
can muster.
Do we believe God wants us to accomplish good? Or do we
believe God is simply out to trick us into hoping for good when
no good will ever come? That, I think, is what some of our
frustrations and anger may be about. Id we really think
God will help us to do good, even when it is completely
impossible, even if we die three times on the way to getting it
done, then we will have the patience to see it through.
But if we suspect that God Himself is somehow out to get us, out
to disappoint us, out to "teach us a lesson" or whatever Satan
has planted in our little minds, we will likely give in to rage
and frustration.
Let me tell you how it works with me. When I sense that I
am not going to get what I want, that I am going to ultimately
fail, or run out of time, or whatever, that is when I am most
tempted to simply get angry and give up. When every little
thing goes wrong (and I am busy keeping count), then I get
angrier and angrier. On the other hand, when I know that I
am going to win, to get the results I'm trying so hard to get,
that no matter what happens, all will turn out just right, then
I tend to stay calm and focused, patient in all circumstances,
because I know that nothing can keep me from reaching my goal.
Like in a game of chess or football or whatever game you are
really good at, when you know that you can handle whatever the
opposition throws your way.
I often get angry with other drivers in traffic. I become
angry when I am rushed for an appointment. I am irritated
when people fail to see the point I'm making in a really good
argument (well, it seems good to me), and at just about anything
else that I perceive as a hindrance or obstacle. And yet
very seldom does any of this stuff matter. No matter how
bad traffic is, I am seldom late for appointments. I am
seldom kept from any goal by the so-called hindrances or
obstacles encountered along the way. In fact, most things
that seem to interfere with my objectives actually prove to be
both worthwhile and even necessary, once everything is over.
God helps us to learn patience by allowing us to experience some
of the difficulties we hate most. The problems do not make
us more patient. They often frustrate and agitate us.
But God gives us patience by allowing us to see how He can use
anything — anything at all — to make everything much better than
we even dared to hope for.
Nothing is beyond the power and goodness of our God.
Nothing.
The above graphic may be used by Christian believers in various kinds of
personal witness, for church programs, and other Christian
activities. There is no charge for this use, so long as
the copyright/credit info is included with the image or a link
back to this site is provided.
To use the graphics on this site,
right click the image (Mac users hover the mouse cursor over the
image) and select the "Save As" or "Save Image As" and save the
file on your computer's hard drive. Images not saved to
your computer will not work properly (especially animated GIF
files), or will likely suffer broken links in a short time.
|
