Life-Rage

Mom4Truth — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:51:25 +0000

I made a driving no-no yesterday. I needed to turn around to get back on the previous road. I patiently waited while two cars drove past and then proceeded to make my move. As I was just getting flipped around, a car blared its horn at me. I slammed on my breaks and and waved my hand to signal my apologies. The young girl behind the wheel gave me that all-too-familiar go to you-know-where-look and her mouth opened to reveal some very obvious obscenities. I waved at her again and let her pass. Now, to my own defense, she was not driving down that street when I began my move, but had taken one of those screeching turns onto that road at the last minute, and decided to accelerate at 90 miles an hour. And yet, it became my fault. As I attempted to shrug off my annoyance, and that little lump that forms in the back of your throat as you consider the potential ramifications of such a situation, I hear my 4 year old’s tiny voice ask, “Why was she honking at you?” “I don’t know,” I said, “some people are just very impatient and angry inside.” But, it did get me thinking about why people are so seemingly angry and impatient, particularly in the car. Now referred to as road rage. We’ve all be victims of it and, let’s be honest, have probably laid on our own horns a few times, but my experience on the road is one that has me considering scripture. Matthew 24:12 says ,”Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” I think we can all safely say, “The love of most has grown cold,” especially when referring to drivers that often share, or don’t share, the road with us. People leave their houses in the morning, hair-trigger tempers just looking for an opportunity to flare, for a reason to transfer their emotional energy on someone else- perhaps to be released of it, if only for a short time, or perhaps because, “The love of most has grown cold.” Let’s face it, Christian or athiest, liberal or conservative, wickedness has indeed increased. Our viewpoints of what consists as wickedness will most surely differ, but we all are shocked, grieved, and horrified by some of the news realities surrounding us in our culture. I think it’s also safe to say that cynicism has become the order of the day. I’d like to know what reason people would give for this increased wickedness and negativity that surrounds our lives. In a nation that has become increasingly defiant of the powers that be, that has set aside more and more rules, more and more moral absolutes in the name of “pursuing happiness” and “freedom”, we seem to be constructing our very own jail cell. Each affair, each abortion, each shot, each hit, each act of sexual immorality, each child abused, each credit card, each time a prayer is quarantined from the public, each cross that is torn down all represent a bar, and I, along with many others, are starting to feel the claustrophobia of a nation closing itself in. The Bible says in Galatians,”Do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature.” Perhaps, as we seek to engage freedom, we find ourselves held captive by the pain the bondage in our lives creates. If we really can and should act however we will, after all, you only live once, right, then why is it that random acts of kindness, love, and joy are disappearing into the no-holds-barred Abyss? Why is it that this “freedom” everyone thinks is so great comes with such a hefty price tag? Perhaps because freedom is the ability to do what you ought, not the right to do whatever you want. Perhaps true freedom is found only when we establish rules and boundaries and discipline ourselves to live inside them. Discipline? Ourselves? Why would I ever do that? The Bible says that “A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.” What good are walls surrounding a city if they are not built up and fortified in order that they may serve to protect those inside? In order that they may establish a boundary line to, in fact, proclaim the city and create a sense of belonging, permanence, and purpose. Crumbling walls represent exhaustion, loneliness, pain and defeat. An established city screams, “Victory!” The Bible also says that those who ignore discipline are “fools…who come to the brink of utter ruin. will die for lack of discipline, led astray by own great folly.” It goes on to say, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” To discipline and hold ourselves accountable will be painful initially, but we are promised a HARVEST of rightousness and peace. Peace. Ahhhh. Just typing it is refreshing. And maybe, that kind of peace, is just what this society needs.

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Life-Rage