Mad as Fire

When I was little, my mom used the expression "mad as fire." That meant really, really mad. It was the kind of anger precipitated by things like your child playing "cuckoo clock" inside the front-loading dryer and breaking the door, or your child breaking up records (remember those?) and shoving them down the toilet, or your child writing in permanent marker on a freshly painted wall. Not that I know what sort of child would do such things . . . suffice it to say that I learned fast what made my mom "mad as fire," though unfortunately for me, I didn't always remember.

We have been examining anger during Nativity's Boiling Point series.  Last week, I tracked what makes me "mad as fire." It turns out that it is people more so than situations that anger me. Perhaps I should say that I always attribute anger-inducing situations back to people, whether they are people I live with or the faceless Verizon guy on the phone. I also found that anger in the morning usually translated to a steady diet of anger all day, and that morning prayer seemed to precede a morning without much anger.

I think I see a pattern here.

This week, I've been tracking to see if my anger is righteous or unrighteous. I've only been doing this for two days now, but generally, my anger is unrighteous. The question is, would the event that angered me also anger God? At first, I think I was approaching this question incorrectly. For instance, if my child didn't do a chore, I would translate as follows: children should do their chores, and so God would support me in yelling at my child. Wrong, of course. I was taking something that might be righteous anger and wrongly reasoning that because my anger was righteous, God also endorsed my method of expressing the anger. 

What does make God "mad as fire?"  I think if we ask the question this way, we see how our anger is almost always unrighteous. I don't think my daughter failing to put her plate in the dishwasher makes God "mad as fire." I do think millions of children not having any food to put on any plates does.

So, tomorrow, my goal is this: when I get angry, I will stop right there and ask, "does this make God mad as fire?" If the answer is no (and I'm pretty sure it will be), then my job is to let it go. Let go of the small inconvenience, annoyance or sharp word from another.

Update to follow.