February 10, 2002
Jonah 4
“Crawling Out of the Anger Hole”
In a biography of the life of Mikey Mantle there is a story told about a hunting trip that Mikey and Billy Martin took together in the off season in the early sixties. Mikey Mantle was known as much for his excesses as he was for his prodigious home run power. Mikey hit hard, played hard, drank hard and when Mikey got angry, it was said that he burned hotter than most anyone and was capable of anything during his fits of anger. On this particular hunting trip the”Mick” and Billy Martin (by the way, Martin is also known for his ability to go off the deep as well) traveled to upstate New York to hunt deer on the farm of a friend of Mikey’s. Upon arriving at his friends farm, Mikey left the truck to notify the friend that they would be hunting on his farm that day. The friend agreed but asked Mikey to do a favor for him. The friend had an old mule that was very sick and the friend wanted to put the poor animal out of his misery but didn’t have the heart to do it so he asked Mikey if he would stop at the barn down the road and “put him down” for him. Mikey agreed but thought he would play a practical joke on Billie Martin as well as doing a favor for a friend. Mikey stormed out of the house, jumped in the truck, hurled a few expletives at the man and told Billie that the man had refused to let them hunt. As they drove past the barn, Mikey stated, “I’ll show that blankety-blank. I’m going to go in that barn and shoot his favorite mule, you can’t do this to Mikey Mantle and Billie Martin.” He threw the truck into reverse and skidded to a stop in the barn yard road. Mikey strutted into the barn, leveled his gun at the mule and “blam”, shoots the animal dead. As Mikey is checking to make sure the mule is dead, he hears two gun shots from the barn yard. He ran out to find Billie Martin outside the truck with his rifle against his shoulder. Mikey asked, “Martin, What in the ____ are you doing?” Martin yelled back, “We’ll show that so-and-so, I just shot two of his cows.”
One might wonder how Martin could get caught up in a practical joke to that degree. But, apparently he had seen Mikey do some things in anger and thought that he was capable of getting angry enough and losing control enough to shoot a friend’s mule dead.
Have you ever shot any mules? Are you capable of shooting mules? Have others seen a side of you that would lead them to believe that you are capable of such fits of anger?
We are an angry society. You cannot pick up a single paper or magazine today that doesn’t include some kind of description of anger gone amuck. Anger almost defines who we are: Red faced babies, angry at parents who don’t give them what they want, teenagers angry at school officials and defiantly scream, “I hate you.” Adults angry at the distracted driver who just squeezed into the traffic on the Lloyd flipping them off or seniors angry at everyone because time and chance happens to us all, even when we don’t want it to.
I am reminded about the story about the elderly woman preparing to park her expensive Cadillac when a young high school student cut her off and stole her parking space. The young man jumped from his car and yelled, “Oh, to be young and fast. The older woman backed her car up, then floored it and started using it as a battering ram to demolish the young man’s car. She then rolled down her window and shouted, “Oh to be old and rich.”
Or, how about Guy Boos who in September 1999 was arrested in Wisconsin because he let his anger get the best of him. His washing machine was acting up so he pushed it out the door, down a flight of stairs and then got his .25 caliber pistol and shot the machine three times. Whether it’s road rage or appliance rage, anger is a big problem.
It was no less a problem for Jonah than for us. He was, as the scripture says, “Greatly displeased and became very angry.” It happens, we get angry and quite often we don’t really know why we’re angry. We are ill equipped to handle anger and we may even have no right to be angry. Today we will explore what we do when we get angry, the types of anger we see in scripture and what the Bible tells us we should do about that anger and I will conclude with some steps to help you handle your anger.
The first thing you must understand is that anger is God given. It can and does serve a useful purpose. The Apostle Paul instructed that we were to, “Be angry and sin not.” He also said “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.(anger)” I remember hearing about a Christian couple whom had experienced a huge conflagration. He had hollered and she had returned in kind. They dressed for bed and the wife leaned over to the husband and said, “Honey, we promised never to ;et the sun go down on our wrath.” His reply was, “The sun is still shining in China.” Not exactly what Paul meant. However, this little story does highlight the ways in which we express our anger. There are generally three ways that people deal with their anger and each is equally detrimental to self and to everyone around you. We commonly express our anger by:
1. Explode- 1 Samuel 25:21-22, David did this with a man named Nabal, “It’s been useless-all my watching over this fellow’s property in the desert so that nothing was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
2. Go Silent- Jeremiah 15: 17-18, “I stayed by myself and was filled with anger. Why do I keep suffering? Why are my words incurable? Why won’t they heal? I’m holding it in and it’s killing me!”
3. Manipulate others- “Lee Iacocca- Don’t get mad, get even.” Look at Luke 6:11- “But they (Pharisees) were furious and began to plot with each other what they might do to Jesus.”
In each case we tend to get into hot water when we get hot under the collar.
Most of the time we get angry and don’t really have a clue whether the anger is appropriate or not. The bible deals with 4 types of anger.
I. The first type is Sudden Anger. The bible tells us that this anger must be controlled. We might blame this type of anger on our red hair or perhaps because we’re Irish. Some are even proud of it. But the bottom line folks is, if you have a short fuse you will continually do a lot of foolish things and you will do a lot of apologizing. Will Rogers once said, “Whenever you fly into a rag, you seldom make a safe landing.” Chuck Swindoll was quoted, “I got so angry that I gave him a piece of my mind and it was a piece I could not afford to lose.”
You may say, “I cannot control my temper. It gets away from me.” But, you can. Have you ever found yourself in a heated discussion and you are getting louder and louder with your words becoming more rapid? Then the telephone rings and you say, “Hello.” You can control your temper, you just won’t control your temper.
II. The Second type of anger would be called sinful anger and it must be condemned. Jesus said in Matthew 5:21 KJV, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone that murders will be in subject to judgement. But, I tell you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, will be subject to judgement.” That means if we are angry and do not have a legitimate reason, your anger is sinful. There is a five fold test to determine if our anger is sinful anger or not.
1. Is the anger directed at a person? (Child, bad boy or bad act?)
2. Is the anger without a justifiable cause?
3. Is it anger that seeks revenge?
4. Is it anger that is cherished?
5. Is it anger that has an unforgiving spirit?
If you harbor a sinful anger the remedy is to repent and turn away from it.
III. The third type of anger in scripture is a stubborn anger. The Bible tells us that this anger must be conquered. A lot of people like to quote the Ephesians verse that says, “Be angry and sin not.” The next verse is the completion of this command, “and do not give the devil a foot hold. This might also be called, “Chip on your shoulder anger.” You know them, they are not even well meaning, they just march around hoping above all hope that someone will knock it off so that they can have a justification for their anger. But, listen carefully…with stubborn anger…there never is a justification. This anger leads to bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Paul says it in verse 31. Same passage, that is the result of stubborn anger, let the devil put his foot in the door and sooner or later, he’ll slide his whole slimy, filthy, nasty body in.
IV. The final type of anger is Sanctified Anger. We are told that this should be channeled in the right direction. Let’s look at Mark 3:1-5 and see a sanctified anger that was channeled by Jesus. (Read passage) Look again at verse 5. Jesus was angry and deeply distressed. Why? Because of their stubborn hearts and their stubborn anger. The Sabbath arrives on a day that is supposed to be glorious, the Sabbath and instead of worship, these good church folks have allowed Satan a foot hold in their lives. No glorifying God, let’s watch so we can trap this Jesus. No thanksgiving, they are only interested in accusation. In Jesus’ channeled anger he does what is good and right, he heals a withered hand. The shriveled hearts of the church folk, he could do nothing about. They had put them out of his reach. But as the man stretches forth his hand he is wonderfully, miraculously healed.
Perhaps is it is time for the church to get angry. But not how churches normally get angry at the pastor , the leaders or each other but angry at sin, the forces of evil, crime or a dozen other good things to channel your anger toward. Maybe you just need to get angry at a shriveled old heart that cannot stretch itself out to the Lord who wants to heal you from wrong anger and liberate you to a righteous kind.
If you find yourself constantly or even frequently in a place of anger you need to know how to handle that anger. It can be simple if you submit and hard if you harden your heart.
First, seek to understand why you’re angry. Clarify the issues involved. Is there a history lesson that you must learn to understand your anger? Perhaps you have unrealistic expectations?
Second, give yourself time to respond. Thomas Jefferson once said, “When you are angry, count to ten, if you’re still angry count to a hundred, if you’re still angry, run away.” Good advice.
Third, release that anger to God in prayer. This can be tough, I know from experience. I don’t want to pray when I am mad. Do you know why? Because I know that 99 and 44/100ths percent of the time I will quit being angry. And, sometimes I just like being angry.
Fourth, Go to the person that you are in conflict with. You can do this in writing, phone or in person. After you determine to communicate, sleep on it. Read Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Fifth, Give up the right to be resentment and revenge. You may feel like you have the right to be bitter but the bible teaches that bitterness will destroy you. Anger hurts you more than anyone else. Just give it up.
In Abraham Lincoln’s biography biography, Carl Sandburg tells the story of Lincoln as a young boy arriving in New Oleans after having traveled down the Mississippi River. As Lincoln and his companion were walking around the city, they came upon a slave market, the first he had ever seen. Families were being torn apart as their loved ones were sold like cattle at an auction. Lincoln enraged and horrified, said to his companion, “If I ever get a chance to hit this thing, I’m going to hit it hard.” For Lincoln his anger was a motivating force to change the course of our country and right a terrible wrong.
Today, some of you have sold yourself very cheaply, to a very cruel master. You are a slave to anger and that ought to make you mad, real angry. But today use your sanctified anger to hit your sudden, sinful or stubborn anger…hard, real hard. Stretch out your withered, shriveled heart to Jesus…and be healed.
