A few nights ago I was at a restaurant with my wife and her sister. As we arose from the table I noticed the two guys sitting behind us checking out my sister-in-law. I overhead them making crass comments about her what they would like to do with her if they ever got the chance. My sister-in-law is an attractive young woman and certainly any pigheaded male would probably love to pursue his ungodly thoughts with her. But the fact that these old, hairy, chauvinistic fat men were sitting there making such rude remarks made me angry. So I chose to take the matter into my own hands. I made my way over to their table.
I’m not sure what came over me to make me think that I could take on two guys much larger than me, but I was ready to give someone a black eye. I put my Pastor title down and I rolled up my sleeves. With the deepest and most sarcastic tone of voice I could muster up, I asked, “Excuse me, do you have something to say about her?”
They look to me stunned. I would like to think they were totally intimidated, but now I am sure they just couldn’t believe this scrawny white guy was really asking them a question in a threatening tone of voice.
“No. We weren’t talking to you.” Said the first guy, as the second guy quickly followed with, “Just admiring beauty,” while smirking and elbowing his buddy.
With my fist clinched I said, “I’m sure you were and you better stop. If you have something to say about her why don’t you say it to my face.”
Again they sat there dumbfounded. With both of us not sure what to say in the silence (and knowing I better end this before I wet my pants) I retorted – “How about you keep your mouth shut and we leave it at that,” and I walked away flexing my muscles (as if they could notice).
As I turned my back I heard them say something about me. That was it; the cage fighter in me was ready to go. I quickly twisted around and said, “Excuse me! If you have something to say about me you better say that to my face too.” Meanwhile my wife was behind me thinking– “Oh great, my pastor-husband is getting into a bar fight. This is going to look great across the headlines.”
Our exchange of words ended with nothing except a stare down. I felt like I put them in a place, but I am sure they are still laughing about it at the gym with their buddies to this day. I was so mad. Even though in reality I could have gotten beat to a pulp, my rage of anger overtook ever brain cell of commonsense in my head.
Anger causes us to do things that are downright crazy. It has a way of taking over our mind to propel us to do actions that we would never do if we were thinking straight. Anger is an overwhelming emotion. Whether our anger is right or wrong doesn’t matter to us in the moment. When something happens to something we love, we can’t help but stand up and scream. But when we feel like God is the one to blame, we don’t know what to do with our anger. Most commonly we only get more upset because we can’t believe that God (who we thought was always good) does something or allows something that seems so bad. We feel stuck in our emotions and at a standstill in our honesty. Can we really be angry with Him? Isn’t that just asking for the rest of His wrath to be dumped out on our heads?
When we feel like God is the one to blame, we don’t know what to do with our anger.
Being mad at God is not wrong unless you stay mad at Him. Giving a voice to the anger inside of you may be the first step to unhindered access to the comfort you need and the strength to sustain you. If you choose to stay mad then you are just denying the opportunity to find the only hope that can pull you through. I’ve seen through my own life, as well as in all the biblical instances of anger toward God, that God is relentless in His mercy. He is willing to let us grumble, shake a fist, weep, yell and sigh. But in all this He is faithful to restore us to himself and replace our anger with a bigger view of who He is.
