Be angry, and sin not

I don't know if you've ever watched "Hard Core Pawn" on TV--it's a reality show about a pawn shop in Chicago.  I have watched that show with my mouth agape, unable to believe how everyone--store keepers and customers alike--fly off the handle, cursing and stomping and spewing all sorts of nasty things. I don't think I could get that angry because a merchant didn't want to buy my item. But I CAN get angry.

Right now I am so angry I think I could literally explode--in fact, I may be close to stroking out, as my blood pressure was alarmingly high this morning.

Someone has consistently hurt someone I love, and I've about had it. That someone is close by, and I'm going to sit them down and talk to them like an older person ought to (and for the record, this is not my child--or my husband. LOL).  I'm going to vent my spleen, as they say, and I'm going to try to do it without sinning--without being destructive, without name calling, and without labeling.  But I'm going to name bad behaviors, state a penalty for those behaviors, and lay it all on the line.  I will EARN this red hair.

And then? Maybe I'll be able to sleep.  I had to get up at four a.m. this morning because I couldn't sleep and my head was beginning to pound.

No wonder the Bible cautions us against anger--we are not to be friends with an angry man, lest we learn his ways, and we are not to harbor anger lest it turn into bitterness (another good reason to let it out instead of letting it stew.)

And yet the Bible also says, "Be angry, and sin not."  Jesus got angry--oh, yes he did.  He was angry when he overthrew the moneychangers' tables in the Temple court, and he was angry when he called the Pharisees a bunch of "white-washed sepulchers."  (And there's a word you don't spell every day).   So it is possible--and sometimes necessary--to let your righteous anger flare.

But I think we must have good cause. And we must be careful that the firm--even stern--words we unleash are earned, and that they will be constructive, not destructive to the relationship at stake.  Most of all, we must give the object of our anger an opportunity to make things right again. Holding out hope of restoration.

I do not go public with personal things on this blog or any other, so you'll simply have to accept what I say on this one.  But I've been up since before dawn, heart pounding, eyes narrowed, and I'm ready to sit someone down and let my temper fly.

But before I begin, I think I'd better repeat that mantra:  "Be angry, and sin not."

(LOL!  I typed "sin now."  Oops.)

Angie