What do the following three situations have in common?  A) Two High School youths open fire on their fellow students, killing 13 before killing themselves;  B) A man attacks a United Airlines flight attendant with his fists after hearing his flight is delayed;  C) A young mother beats her child severely after hearing it cry, and the child dies soon after.

          What do these have in common?  Anger -- misdirected anger, uncontrolled anger, deadly anger, anger with no constructive release.  Read about violence in any newspaper, and you'll find anger at its root.  Today we're in the midst of an epidemic of uncontrolled and misdirected anger that's threatening to destroy our society:  road rage, runway rage, sports rage.

          It's all about anger, a negative human emotion with great power.  Anger itself is not bad, but misdirected, it causes great trouble and heartache.  Sometimes our anger is righteous and moves us to do right.  More often it is the unrighteous kind that hurts and causes sadness, even tragedy.

          I struggle with anger, and I think you do too.  We all constantly need to be aware of what it's doing in our lives.  Anger is like a pressure cooker; it needs a lid but it also needs a pressure release valve.  Without either, it will boil over, explode and cause great damage.  Some folks learn to control their anger, but others never do.

          St. Paul says, "In your anger, do not sin.  Do not let the sun go down on your anger."  Anger is mentioned nearly 400 times in the Bible, and half are references to God's anger over our sin and rebellion.  Anger itself is not a sin, but uncontrolled anger is.

          I believe much of our anger today is caused by frustration.  Something is just not right.  We live in an age of technology and convenience.  We've come so far.  We have so much knowledge and skills.  Things should be better now, but they're not.  Technology has helped us with longer life and ease of living, therefore we assume we should have a happier, more pleasant life.

          Technology should solve our problems, but it doesn't.  With every solution comes another problem.  With all our education, people should be smarter than they are!  Computers save time, but we waste so much time figuring them out.  Smallpox is irradicated, but now we have AIDS.  New cars are better now, but who can afford them?  It's so frustrating!  Life should be better to us!

          The list goes on:  Buy your dream home and lose your spouse.  Build fine schools and fill them with the emptiness of neutral values.  Work hard climbing the corporate ladder and get "riffed" (aka fired) by "downsizing".  Set up a government program to help people and then paralyze it with endless regulations.  Trust your friend and get betrayed.  Give your child what you never had, then discover you didn't give him what he really needed.  And of course, join a new church and discover those people aren't perfect either.

          Life shouldn't be that way!  It should be better!  Advertisements promise us happiness, but deliver little.  College degrees promise a better pay and we end up flipping burgers.  We get so much promised and so little delivered.  It's unfair!  You can just feel the anger building...

          This is such a powerful emotion.  It can be connected to fear and remorse when it pushes us to do things we later regret.  Sometimes anger even turns humorous.  John Burkhardt of McClusky, ND, an 80 year-old man I instructed and brought into the church, was an easily angered man.  He'd blow his top at most anything.  One day he angle-parked his car on Main Street and went into a store.  When he got back in his car to leave, he failed to notice a car behind his waiting to get into another space.  He put his car in reverse and slammed into the car behind him.  Furious, he backed up and slammed into the car again -- and again he hit it a third time, terrorizing the poor lady at the wheel.  Then he got out and shouted, "Move that blankety-blank car!"  Half-blind old John lost his license over that one.  "It ain't fair," he later told me.  "I had every right to be mad!"

          Sometimes we do have a right to be angry, and yes, life can be unfair.  It's always been that way.  But we can't always fix the unfair things of life.  We may want, even demand, a solution to every problem and think someone should be able to fix it.  But they can't, so we blow up.  Sometimes we blow others up, too.  Someone has to be behind our troubles, someone must be at fault!  It can't be us!  And yet it often is.  Our sinful nature is the cause of most of our problems.  As Walt Kelly's Pogo says, "We have seen the enemy, and he is us!"

          If we are ever to control our anger, we must first look at our Father.  If anyone should be angry with us, it is He.  We make our futile plans and then blame someone -- even Him -- when they don't work out.  We rebel against Him and yet He loves us.  We dump the garbage of our anger all over His people, and still He forgives us.  He sees us blow our tops and hurt each other, and He should be filled with incredible wrath.  But instead of wrath, God gives us a gift, His only Son, our Lord Jesus.  In Jesus we see the heart of God's love, a heart never moved by anger, a heart moved by the compassion of a father for his wayward child.

          If anyone should be angry with us, it should be Jesus.  He did no wrong and yet was rejected by both church and state.  He taught forgiveness and yet is still scorned when we refuse to forgive and let go.  He loved His disciples and they ran away.  He confronted the church in its lost direction and got nailed to a cross.  That shouldn't have happened to the One who did it all right.  It's not fair!

          And yet it was all necessary, for you and I can't do it right by ourselves.  Jesus died for our failures and we must forgive others theirs.  We all need to be saved from our own pride, our own failures, and Jesus is only One who can do that.  He knows rejection and disappointment.  He understands mistakes.  And He says, "Come to me all you who are tired and weary of doing things your own way, and I will give you rest."  Good News from our good God!

          Come to the Lord -- Give God your anger.  "In your anger do not sin.  Don't let the sun go down on your anger.  Don't let the Devil get a foothold."  Give Him all your regrets, your hurts and your disappointments.  Give God your anger.  He can handle it.

          Sister Kenny, famed Irish-Australian nurse who helped find treatment for polio, was once asked how she managed to stay so calm and cheerful, no matter what the provocation.  "I suppose you were just born calm and smiling," her friend said.  "Oh no!" laughed Sister Kenny.  "As a girl my temper often got out of bounds, but one day when I was fuming over a trivial matter, my mother gave me advice that I never forgot.  She said, 'Elizabeth, anyone who angers you, conquers you'."  Sister Kenny learned if she truly wanted to live a contented life, she first had to conquer her temper.  Until she did, others would yank her chain and jerk her around without mercy.

          For some, anger does rule our lives, because we're powerless over it.  Only when we admit that we're powerless, that we can't control others, only then are we close to a solution.  When we are weakest and seek God in faith, then we are at our strongest.  Only when we know it's got us in its grasp can we let it go.  Jesus got angry but He got over it.  So must we.

          More often than we realize, we must speak two difficult words - "Help me!"  I used to think the two hardest words were, "I'm sorry", but these are harder -- "Help me!"  And when we say them, God will!  He will bring us help through His Word, or a good friend, or a counselor.  Modern people don't like to ask for help.  We want to solve things our own way, by buying something, going to a seminar or moving to another job, another marriage or another church.

          Is there anyone out there who understands what I'm saying?  This is a huge problem in our lives.  Uncontrolled anger is a symptom of something bigger and deeper.  I know some of you feel the same fear brings rage, the same sadness and regret when we hurt others in the haste of our anger.  What can we do?  How can we control the anger, the rage, that thing that wants to strike out in word or deed when life doesn't go our way?  Yes, we can, and here are three steps:

          ADMIT YOUR NEED - Admit it to God.  He's the one we're rebelling against.  You and I do need His strength.  If you want to control your anger, admit your need.  Give your anger to God.

          LEARN YOUR LIMITS - Avoid that situation or person if you can.  We can't avoid them all, and we can't control all circumstances, but some we can.  Know when to say "when".  And avoid slippery places.  Don't let your anger stew, or the devil will get a foothold.  Give your anger to God.

          If necessary, ASK FOR HELP - God places special people in our life to help us, but we must open our eyes to see them.  It may be a good friend or even a professional.  Asking for help may be the most important thing you've ever done.  Give your anger to God.

          Angry people aren't bad people, just human.  God has good reason to be angry at us, but He loves and forgives us, no matter what.  Look to the Lord.  He'll give you strength.  He's the Rock of Ages, the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Trust Him and let Him share your load.  He loves and wants a good life for you.  He will help because He is God.  Reach out to Him today.  Give God your anger, and He'll give you His peace.  Amen.

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.