The Cracked Acorn: Anger

Long ago, on a clear summer Kentucky day, my father, Leo Thompson, the sharecropper, and I “persuaded” our herd Angus bull to go inside the stock barn to receive a vaccination for undulant fever, one of those dreaded cattle diseases. While Dad tethered the big fellow to a post in one of the stalls, Leo and I stood at a safe distance outside the barn, there to witness this outburst of animal rage.  It didn’t bother my father, who was used to going “where angels fear to tread.” Called up at the close of WWII, he would have made a good soldier and the one to have stuck close to in dangerous situations.

We would expect to see anger in animals; it’s their God-given way to deal with uncertain situations and for survival.  Too much of this is appearing in our great society.  Schools, the highway traffic, and the ordinary office building now have to deal with unhappy citizens who, for no reason, go over the edge. I think the word “postal” is the term for unpredicted homicidal action.

Counselors say that those who laugh and find humor, put themselves in the other person’s shoes, practice trusting other people, use good listening skills, live each day as if it were their last, find opportunities to forgive those who anger them, and (this is my favorite); learn to relax.

The movies are running two hot ones this summer -THE HULK and HARRY POTTER.  In the first, the huge green man gets madder and madder and wails the livin’ daylights or stomps, throwing everything in/out of his path. Here is rage taken to the cutting edge, while HARRY solves all his problems or has a wonderful time using magic (occult mystic devices are discovered and used).

These comic book characters are harmless, so we think, as long as they are trapped on ink and paper. If they were real, more would seek the help of a higher “power.”  Leading columnists tell us that there are certain benefits for society from these two features; I am still working on this; my mind keeps going back to that clear summer morning when if it had not been for sycamore planking on the stock barn, I would have had to decide whether I was a man or a mouse.  I like good cheese.

1 PETER 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
Ephesians 4:26 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

Let’s sing this song every day:
SOLDIERS of Christ, arise, And put your armor on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies
Through his eternal Son, Strong in the Lord of hosts,
And in his mighty power, Who in the strength of Jesus trusts
Is more than conqueror.

Leave no unguarded place, No weakness of the soul,
Take every virtue, every grace, And fortify the whole;
Indissolubly joined, To battle all proceed.