8. Handling the I.E.D.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder. That’s what some therapists call it. We read of soldiers being injured or worse by IEDs overseas. Some of us have been taken out by a different kind of IED over here.

Someone wise once said, “Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” I think a lot of us have been there. Acting in anger can often lead to more regret. Over and over in Scripture, we find the subject of anger being brought up. In fact, it’s a theme in Jesus’ teaching to His disciples and Paul’s writings to believers. This weekend in our “After-Life” series, we’ll consider how to handle anger before it handles us. It’s actually the fruit of something else. To deal with it, we have to get underneath it.

Of course, not all anger is wrong. The Scriptures tell us God is slow to anger and we are called to be slow to anger as well. Love isn’t easily angered. But nowhere does it say that God is never angry and that we are never to be angry. But even anger when it’s “right” can quickly go “wrong” when it’s not processed appropriately.