Day 232: Anger

I went out tonight. It was late, well after 10 p.m., and I was angry. There's really no other word for it -- just a pure, adrenaline-inducing anger. It's not Christ-like, I realize. But that was how I was feeling. Mary has had some bad encounters during the past three days with people -- other Christians, actually -- who have surprised us with ugly hostility. I believe they are in the wrong, and I've been angry about it. Praying about it, yes, but I still was waiting for that emotion to lift.

And so I went out after the big basketball game to find someone to pray for, but I was not particularly inspired about it. The guy I found was driving a big red pick-up truck. It had a placard on the side -- "Mike's Recycle," it read. So I asked Mike -- a guy about my age with a baseball cap and a beard -- if I could pray for him.

"Sure," he said. So I prayed for him on the spot, asking God to bless him that night in whatever he was doing. "I was just getting ready to go play video games with my brother and just chill," he said. So we chatted for a moment, and then I left. We shook hands first.

And I was gone. He was a happy, likable guy, who had no qualms about what I was doing. And as I drove home, I noticed my anger was gone. Just like that, I was harboring no grudges, just a sense of disappointment to the other situation we were facing.

The Holy Spirit, I believe, was at work. Wherever we do God's work, the Spirit is there, too. And so I knew I was meant to meet with Mike the Recycler. And I also was meant to meet with the Spirit, which I knew in that moment had taken over parts of my life that I had been clinging to and covered them with the selfless love of Christ. And so I learned my lesson.

It's not like it's magic. I don't expect the anger to be gone for good. I feel deep down like it could come back -- that I'm not above inviting it back. But I remember that moment of realization, and I'm going to keep inviting the Spirit to live through me. And I know I have to keep serving God the way he wants to be served. What better way to be in close proximity to the Spirit of God?