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.
