Thoughts on Wrath

John 13:35-  "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Wrath is the direct enemy of love.  Whether it is blind wrath or laser-focused wrath, it is extreme anger that thrives on desolation.  Unfortunately, I have met one too many people in the past few years or so that have befriended bitterness and nurtured the blossoming flower of wrath.  Since the individuals allowed it to grow without uprooting it, I found myself on the receiving end of wrath one too many times for my liking.

There were many times in the past few years in which I felt that I was in combat mode against wrath.  I can’t say names or groups of people for obvious reasons, but I felt like I was on the defense more times than not for the past few months.  Whether it was attack from unsuspecting people, a front on attack that I was expecting from a frequent source, or reading negative Facebook posts, I wondered when I was going to hear something positive.

Sometimes when there is too much negativity in my life, I shut down my Facebook account because it closes one door for wrath to seep in and I can just focus on the people in front of me.  Reading posts with no intention of dialogue gets tiresome because the main intent is to shame, denigrate, or divide people without giving room for healing or understanding.   It is often times anger that has no intention of peace, or stating a problem without providing a solution.   I am not trying to put my head in the sand, but instead exercise control over toxic intake.  There are other ways to get a point across.

Does this mean that we should ignore these issues?  No.  They exist.  And you know what it is rooted in?  Hurt.  Rejection.  Bitterness.  Frustration.  It is that left over food that is left in the cold damp refrigerator and allowed to mold over.  The only way to deal with it is to reach in, pull it out, and face it.  And we must face it with… guess what?  Love.  No agenda.  No expectations.  Just love.

This is why I stopped deleting my page.  There are times where I ask for prayer on my page, but my general intent for posting is to spread good will… be it something cool that I did, something I am looking forward to, a verse that spoke to me, a stupid picture of me, a picture of my cats that makes me happy, or to make people laugh about a ridiculous situation that I got myself into.  I want people to go away from my page feeling good.  I want to spread hope and joy.  If I close my account, that means that I have walked away and am unable to try to spread hope, joy, love, or other Godly attributes.  If someone smiles after reading a post, thats a victory.  If someone "likes" my comment because it made them think more about God... thats a victory.  Victories that happened because I allowed God to inspire me to post something on my page that is active.

There is no time or space for wrath, or the jealousy, anger, bitterness, divisiveness, or segregation that goes along with it.  It eats everything it comes into contact with, much like acid.  This is why I want to be an agent of change.  I want to be able to love people well and inspire others to love people well.  It starts with ourselves, and then it overflows.  This is why I am making the choice today and every day to do my best to be a fountainhead of God, and seek him and his love.  I don't like the way wrath burns inside of me because my body was not made to contain it, and when I let it out on others, it has the same acidic effect... therefore it is not worth sharing.  This why I want nothing to do with it.

You might think, “Well, you are super naïve.”  No I am not.  If you know my story, and you know how I had to overcome the stain of other people’s wrath, it gives me joy to be able to recognize that it is possible and obtainable.  And for that, I am not bitter at God for allowing those things to happen to me, instead I give him praise for allowing me to conquer and to help others out of those same dungeons.

In conclusion, I want to challenge people to balance the leger.  In relationships, there are supposed to be a maximum of one negative memory to every five good memories for a healthy relationship to thrive.   How often is that true in life? If we looked at Facebook this way, how many negative posts are there compared to positive posts?  It would be an interesting survey.  So lets balance that.  In our own lives, lets try to balance the positive to negative ratio in our lives.  Lets break the hold of wrath and divorce it from our souls.