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| THE HOT HEAD |
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When I was a lad, people had a name for those who grew angry very quickly. The term was “hot head”. Nobody liked to be called that. It is not wrong to get angry; it’s a part of our human makeup. How we react to our anger is what makes it right or wrong. I remember when my Dad would be driving his car and someone would do something that made him mad; he would yell out the window at them. I felt like crawling under the car seat. One day Dad got angry and almost got into a fist fight with the repairman at the auto shop. Dad would often let his anger draw him down into a whirlpool of wrong thoughts and actions. Today when someone is out of control on the highway we call it “road rage”. If an employee lets his anger go wild at his job we call it “going postal”. These are just new names for a old problem. In the Bible, we read of a great man named David. David, along with a band of his men, was hiding from his enemy, King Saul, who was trying to kill him. David and his men were camped near a rich farmer’s land. They were kind to the farmer’s servants and protected his farm, but they were in need of food. David sent some of his men to the farmer to ask him for something to eat. The farmer railed at David’s men, called David a run -away slave, and was just plain nasty to them. When David’s men came back and told him what the farmer had said, David told them to strap on their swords. His intent was to kill that farmer and all his workers. One of the farmer’s servants went and told the farmer’s wife what had happened. Quickly, she gathered food and went to David. She bowed to David and talked very humbly and kindly to him, giving him opportunity to cool off. She spoke to him about how he would be sorry later if he acted foolishly now by killing innocent men. David realized she was right; he thanked her for keeping him from doing wrong. It was good that David had someone to keep him from being drawn into the whirlpool of angry reaction. How can we keep from being drawn into wrong thoughts and actions by our anger? Remember to not do or say anything when you are angry; wait until you calm down. Count to 500, by that time you will be able to think more clearly. If you do or say anything when you are angry, it will probably be something you will be sorry for later. We read of a very powerful king in the Bible who made a huge idol of gold. He assembled all his people before the idol and commanded that at the sound of the music, everyone must bow before it. If anyone did not bow down, he would be thrown into a furnace and burnt up. As the music played, everyone bowed down. Everyone, that is, but three Hebrew men, who did not. The king said that he would give them a second chance to bow, but they said, “We will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image“. The king was so very angry that he told his servants to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it had ever been. He commanded his very best soldiers to tie the Hebrews up and throw them into the fire. The fire was so hot that the soldiers were burnt up when they threw the three men into the furnace! Some innocent men lost their lives just because the king let his anger control him. (The three Hebrews, however, were miraculously spared by the hand of God.) Notice the advice that the Bible gives us. It is so simple, yet it works: Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Proverbs 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. DON’T LET ANGER DRAW YOU DOWN INTO A WHIRLPOOL OF FOOLISH THOUGHT OR ACTION. WHEN ANGRY, WAIT UNTIL YOU COOL DOWN; ONLY THEN SPEAK OR ACT. Ref. 1 Samuel 25:2-34 Daniel 3:1-22 |
| By H. Witmyer |