Big Bang Theory

 In a west Texas town a few years ago, employees in a medium-sized warehouse noticed the smell of gas. Sensibly, management evacuated the building, extinguishing all potential sources of ignition -- lights, power, etc.

After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights appeared to be working.

Several witnesses later described seeing one of the technicians reach into his pocket and retrieve an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away.

Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. His peers had never thought that the technician that was suspected of causing the explosion as being particularly “bright”.

Do you remember that song called “You Don't Mess Around With Jim”, that Jim Croce used to sing? It was a song about things that you don’t dare do (spit into the wind, pull the mask off the Lone Ranger or tug on Superman’s cape) He might have also said, “You don't flick your Bic inside a building with a gas leak”! In an explosive situation, the last thing you want to do is provide the spark.

We've all been around those kinds of situations (probably not literally, but figuratively) -- where someone was angry and it wouldn’t take much to create an explosion. We have two choices in that setting, described by Solomon in this way:

A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more anger. Proverbs. 15:1

How I admire those people that I know (and my wife is one of them) who have a calming effect on those around them (including me), gently stifling the sparks of anger before they can burst in flames.

Wise people calm anger down. Proverbs. 29:8

In the Old Testament there are 177 occasions where Divine anger is expressed. This anger of God is the response of His holiness to out-breaking sin. 

As believers we are enjoined to

put away the feeling of self-regarding, vindictive anger… But now also put off all these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of your mouth. Colossians 3:8

Anger is not a sin! Jesus Himself expressed this very human emotion on more than one occasion… And looking around on them with anger, being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, Stretch out your hand! And he stretched it out. And his hand was restored whole, like the other. Mark 3:5 

It’s what we do with the anger that really matters. If we are driven by anger, then we become a prisoner to that anger, and as many doctors will confirm, that can have lasting physiological results.

A wrathful man stirs up fighting, but one slow to anger calms fighting. Proverbs 15:18

Anger is the fire that sets whole cities on fire. Do you remember the terrible Watts race riots in Los Angels many years ago? They were the result of pent up anger, anger that had been building over a whole lot of social issues, but when the anger finally exploded it destroyed an entire suburb, and left 34 people dead. 

I don’t know about you, but I would far sooner known as a person who put out the fires of anger, rather than one who ignites them.

  

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