ANGER! 3

The first step in managing anger properly is to recognize its presence and its influence in our lives. It seems that the sole mission of some people on this earth is to be annoying. We all have those people in our lives. Israel was only three days from the Red Sea, where God had miraculously rescued them from Pharaoh, and they were grumbling against Moses (Ex 15:24). And on it went (Ex 16:2 and Ex 17:2). For forty years Moses had to put up with that. Bad circumstances and disagreeable people take their toll over time.

The question is not whether others are annoying or circumstances are difficult. The question is how much you let it get to you. Moses did remarkably well with the annoyance for nearly forty years. Something changed near the end of that time. The years of grumbling finally got to him. The system that had worked so long and so well managing his anger finally broke down. Annoyance was turning into resentment.

The early signs of resentment are seen in our speech. How we speak of others paints a picture of what is going on inside. All the words may be right at first, but the tone and body language that goes with those words say something different. Later comes the compulsive need to talk about why others are so annoying. The words become more cutting. Every little action, even the clothes that the person wears, comes under careful scrutiny. When pushed far enough, there is finally the raging tirade against the sins of others that drips with self-pity. Worse yet this resentment has a way of offering its own cold comfort. As resentment grows, it makes us feel good by reminding us how badly others are treating us. This gives a sense of moral superiority not unlike the self-righteous anger of the Pharisees toward the “sinners” of their day.

When we read the scriptures, we can’t see Moses’ body language when he spoke to Israel over the years. We can’t hear the tone that painted his voice. We can’t hear the inner voices that were coaching him. We can only see what finally happened as he lashed out verbally at the people of Israel and then viciously struck the rock twice. At that moment Moses’ heart was far from God.

As one who has struggled with this sin in my own life, I know how slowly yet steadily resentment creeps into one’s life. The need to control it becomes overwhelming sometimes because the anger that wells from that resentment can be frightening. The problem is that the more that we try to control it the stronger it gets. The longer we allow it to grow in us the more poisoned our thinking and feeling become. Worse still, the place that God occupies in our lives becomes smaller and smaller until at times it is overrun by the anger.

Our salvation comes ironically not in learning how to control the resentment but in giving up its control to Christ. It is only his love and forgiveness that can drive out the demon. Somewhere along the road to the Promised Land, Moses stopped giving his resentment over to the Lord and began keeping it and nurturing it inside.