What Makes Us Angry?

“Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” Ephesians 4:26

Are things that tend to make us angry all about us? People cutting in front of us in line, the conspiracy train schedule making us late, grocery store out of the one item you went there for…

Let’s not waste anger on trivial things our spoiled selves take for granted. Let’s not allow anger to cause us to sin. Let’s use our anger to take action.

A friend told me yesterday a popular Mall is a hot-spot for human trafficking. Girls go missing; taken; sold. Have I walked right by, not even aware?

Three out of ten women in the US will voluntarily end a pregnancy before their 45th birthday.  A well-known organization supporting pro-choice has a video on their website. Everyone smiling, the young girl in the waiting room is called. As she walks to the back, her mother grabs a magazine. The patient asks, “what happens during the procedure?” The soft-spoken woman replies, “we empty your uterus…and it only takes 5 minute. Why do you think the ultra-sound screen is turned out of view, or perhaps not even performed at all? Heartbeat = a child in the womb, not a blob of tissue.

I’ve met some of them; women suffering in silence because they were told it was an acceptable choice. Actually, most felt they had no choice, which is so ironic. A choice isn’t a choice if one feels it’s the only choice. Many have turned pain, grief, and anger of misinformation into action, establishing and serving at pregnancy centers and becoming advocates for life; advocates for truth. Forgiven and set free, they are making a difference. Women need to know.

Terrorists, greed, be-headings of children. The starving, the homeless, the neglected. We spend millions of dollars on what makes us feel good. Do we even give, not  because we’re generous, but because it makes us feel good?

Let’s be cheerful do-good givers, not charitable feel-good takers. Let’s be devoted   prayers, not naysayers.

What can one person do? What can we do together?

Christine Caine, co-founder of the A21 Campaign against human trafficking, made this statement in her book Undaunted:

“Remember, we can’t do everything, but we can all do something. Every challenge we seek to overcome will have its own dangers and difficulties. If it did not, it would not be a challenge. Toppling an unjust political system, fighting human trafficking, helping the hungry in your community, reaching lost people with the love of God, visiting those who are in prison (justly or unjustly), providing education for migrant children, bringing fresh water to the thirsty, helping a neighbor in a time of crisis, and thousands of other acts of service all come with their own unique challenges. If you and I are going to make a difference for Jesus in this world, the question is not ‘Will we face challenges?’ The real question is, ‘Will we be ready to face dangers, difficulties, and disappointments and learn to press on with an undaunted spirit?”

So next time we get angry because we broke a nail, or we can’t find the remote, let’s refocus.

Anger in and of itself is not sin, yet it can cause us to sin. Instead of losing it and lashing out, let’s redirect and reach out.

Pray for direction; seek to make a difference in the Name of Jesus. Turn anger into action, and selfishness into service. Family, community, country, world.

It’s hard to grasp the hard truth, in some countries you’d have to knock on thirty-thousand doors before finding someone who has heard the gospel.  Thirty-thousand doors.

We can’t do everything, but we can do something. 

There are opportunities to give and serve in pregnancy centers, food pantries, on mission trips, in shelters, with hot meal programs…

Let’s share our gifts, walk in our calling and spread the joy. It’s time to bloom.

Have you turned anger into action in some way?

Share what God has placed on your heart to do. Do you feel drawn to a cause or mission?

In Him,

Doris