Always On Top Of Anger Series

“How to Deal with the Way I Feel” part 4 (Always on Top of Anger)

Brian A. Moon

In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well.

It is amazing how out of hand things can get when we get angry. In a US NEWS and WORLD REPORTS article I read this:

From road rage to fights in sporting events anger is the most destructive of all human emotions!

Each of us have our own little stories that we could come up and tell about how we have blown our tops and reacted in anger. We all have faced things that have made us angry and full of rage. Life is just that way, we want things our way, we are not patient people and anything that keeps us from the pursuit of happiness causes our blood to boil.

The other day I was in my office and something was not going right, I could not get this document to print for about the 300th time. I have this bad habit though of stomping my feet and tossing things around my office when stuff doesn’t work and on this day my wife was in the room and she said to me, “Do you think anyone can hear you when you do that?” As I sat and thought about that I had to laugh because I can just imagine what it sounds like from somewhere else in the building… “Oh, don’t mind that banging and thumping, that is just our pastor”

The bad thing about anger however is that when we react in anger we always regret it, we never act out in anger and in the long run come out better for our outburst. Feelings get hurt, relationships get damaged, conflicts begin, and we usually look very foolish. Have you ever seen someone get really mad, it is so foolish looking, you are almost embarrassed for them sometimes. So how do we always stay on top of anger? What can we do to keep our anger in check and not spewing out on other people? The Bible has a verse that I would like to share with you that might get us going in the right direction.

1 John 3:10 “But even if we don’t feel at ease, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.” CEV

Underline the words “greater than our feelings”

You can try to go to some anger management course that teaches you how to manage your feelings, but only God is GREATER than your feelings. For us to be “Always on Top of Anger” we must look to God as our source of strength and self-control, and we must begin by figuring out:

What is causing the problem?

Recently in this series we talked about stress and how to have success over it, and anger is a lot like it.

Before we can be on top of it we must first figure out what is causing us to get angry. Ben Franklin once said, “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.” Getting angry at things from time to time is just life, someone bumps into you while walking in the mall and you might get a little mad but after a second or two you are back to normal. Sometimes we can limit the amount of anger in our lives by simply avoiding certain things that make us mad. If you know that large crowds pushing and shoving to get somewhere at the same time makes you mad then don’t go to Busch Gardens on the Weekends. But, for most of us there is a deeper issue at work when it comes to our anger. When you react out of anger, or you carry it around with you for long periods of time, you have grudges and want to get back at people, it is never just because one isolated incident made you mad.

Anger is something that if you don’t stay on top of, will build and build until every little thing that goes wrong will send you into a blind rage. Also much like stress, our hearts play a role in being “Always on Top of Anger” If you are having some anger issues in your life, you are constantly dealing with getting mad and losing your temper then may I suggest you look at the condition of your heart.