But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Colossians 3:8
While there are several types of anger and the people who use them, there are two that struck me today which I will name the anger dump truck and the anger incinerator.
The first, the anger dump truck, is that person who carries a load of anger out in the open and quickly finds a place to dump it. The wise one will learn to find a dumping ground with nothing in it of value, particularly not other persons. Which brings us to the worst behavior of these anger dump trucks, and that is to dump that anger on another person. Great harm is caused by this sort of dumping, harm that can last for generations.
The other type for today is a behavior that I have done too often: the anger incinerator. This type is that person who receives a load of anger and internalizes it with heat and burns quietly keeping all of it until the last bit of anger fuel is burned away. Obviously this is quite a stress on the machinery. While no one but the incinerator is harmed by this behavior, the harm to this type of person is also great.
This is not a call for judging one behavior worse than the other, but recently it has been shown to me how terrible it is when the worst of the anger dump trucks - those who dump their load of anger on other people, and the anger incinerator come together through the circumstances of this world or perhaps the designs of the evil one...and perhaps we should recognize that God may also bring them together to test both and refine them for His glory.
What form shall this refinement take? I believe that a bit of the Lord's word from our dear friend Paul will help in this: put off all these! Read our verse above for today, and the command is clear. I should no longer be the anger incinerator. While it is up to the brother to stop being the anger dump truck, it is certainly up to me to come to my Lord in prayer and learn to put off these things. And, brother, does this verse ever describe exactly what the boss and I have endured from this dumper in the past several weeks!
And now, before the next test, I need prayer preparation and faith in the healing power of my Lord and Savior!
Bucky
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