May 10, 2006

During a business meeting today I was reminded why we dread business meetings. Inevitably in every church there is a member or two…or three….or hundred who mistake God’s house for their own. In this case the chairman of the Trustees publicly harangues the youth pastor for painting the youth area without the permission of the Trustees, although he kept saying I and me…but that is beside the point. He has a point as far as the chain of command but when he said “it was the worst paint job I have ever seen” I about blew my top. Those were teenagers who worked hard to paint their youth room. They chose a color, albeit not the most popular color there is, that made the place their own. At any rate, he berated their work and their creativity and I was angry. A “righteous anger” I thought. I was ready to tell him a thing or two, or maybe I should email the pastor and tell him how awful this person had behaved but SOMETHING had to be done……didn’t it? Let’s see what the Bible says about my “righteous anger”.

Psalm 39:1 says “I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.”

Isn’t it amazing how our TONGUE gets us into so much trouble. “ I will put a muzzle on my mouth”, amazing. That’s exactly what needed to happen and I think the Lord put a Holy Muzzle on my mouth. God be praised because Lord knows…well…anyway…

Proverbs 10: 19-21 says “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.”

How true! Sometimes doesn’t it feel like the more we say the bigger the hole we’re digging? And in the end don’t we wish we had just kept silent. If I had a nickel for every time I wish I had kept silent I would be a wealthy woman. The tongue of the righteous…..don’t’ you wonder what that is really? Who is that person with the tongue of the righteous? It’s not me I’ll tell you that! I wish it were…Maybe our silence keeps our tongue righteous while the heart of the wicked although they seem to have the upper hand, is of little value in the eternal scheme of things. Oh to have righteous lips that nourish many. Do you know what that means? Think about it. If you are nourishing with your lips you aren’t satisfying the stomach, you’re satisfying the mind….the soul even. Can you imagine having such control over our over run mouths that we nourish someone’s mind and soul when we speak? Only with God is that even remotely possible….at least for me!

Those verses keep my tongue under control, but what about my judgment of this person. My gut reaction was that he was being vicious but what does the Bible say about my judgment?

Matthew 7:1-5 says (as if you don’t know this one from over usage…) “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Ow., ow, ouch…Have I not, too, had moments when my mouth overstepped it’s bounds and was unrighteous…..hypocrite is right. It’s been a long time since I’ve really felt ashamed of myself for something I hought was justified. He may have been in the wrong but how many times have I been in the wrong……today? Yesterday? Last Week? Guess I better start working on this plank in my eye….forget the plank, maybe log is more appropriate.

I Corinthians 4:4 says, “My conscience is clear but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.”

It is the Lord who judges me…..and everyone else. Shame on me for judging him when it’s God’s job. Who am I to presume to know the Lord’s judgment. My goodness what pride…..eek! That’s a whole other ball of wax….

Okay so I’m controlling my tongue, I’m not going to judge, but what about the anger….the hurt in my heart for the harshness of his words. What does the bible say about anger?

Psalm 4:4 says, “ In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.”

My anger caused me to sin that’s for sure. And doesn’t anger almost always cause us to sin? I really can’t think of a time when it didn’t. I have to be honest here and say I’m not sure of the significance of “when you are on your bed” but in my personal opinion solely based on my habits, when I am angry I dwell on it…I roll it around in my head like a pool ball that just won’t get in the pocket. When I try to sleep, it’s near impossible because I have worked myself up to a tizzy over something that probably isn’t that big of a deal. I should be searching my heart (for scripture in my opinion) and being….SILENT. There’s that hold your tongue stuff again….. I think I’m starting to get it now Lord…I think, I hope….

James 1:19-20 says, “ My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Is God a smart cookie or what….I mean seriously! He knew from the beginning of time our anger would get our mouths moving and shut our ears off. That God of ours…whew! My husband has a poster on the fridge that says “Life can be frustrating; Thank Goodness God has all the answers!” Can a girl get an amen?! God wants us to be righteous and how does anger fit into that? It doesn’t. IT DOESN’T! Yikes….

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? There’s no such thing as righteous anger….it’s an oxymoron as far as I’m concerned. What about Jesus over turning the tables at the temple, you say? In Mark 11:12-19 we see the story about Jesus driving out those buying and selling at the temple.. It doesn’t say anywhere in that passage of scripture that Jesus was angry. That’s a Hollywood adaptation or even an assumption on our part. As a matter of fact it says that he drove them out and as he did he TAUGHT (V. 17) them what they were doing was wrong. It reminds me of parenting in a way. Your children frustrate you when they do things wrong (my friends have seen, and heard, my frustration on occasion) so what should you do? Teach them the right thing to do through discipline. Getting angry does nothing but put on a show…an unrighteous one at that. So even the supposed Righteous anger of our Lord wasn’t anger at all, it was discipline.

God is amazing in His understanding of us and the messed up way we think, and there is healing in His Word. I feel so much better than I did in that moment of my supposed “righteous anger”. Maybe I’ll just encourage the youth pastor for engaging the kids in a project to help them work as a team. Maybe I’ll even point out what a nice job they did…..*wink*

Ah, come quickly Lord Jesus….