Emotions are so fickle

My emotions can change several times in the course of a day. They usually don’t, but they can. I’m normally a pretty steady-Eddie, but my emotions still surprise me. Just the other day I was listening to some old hymns on a CD in my car, and I suddenly started to weep. It took me back to my youth, and I found myself thinking about some of the saints in the church of my youth. The tears just flowed.

Do you ever get angry? Of course you do. Now there’s an emotion most men aren’t afraid to show. Women can cry, but we men can get angry. I’m right, aren’t I?

A couple of days ago someone told me he was so angry he couldn’t think straight. His anger was addressed at someone else, and he couldn’t let it go. I said to him, “I know the answer to your anger. It’s forgiveness. That’s always the Bible’s answer when we’re angry with other people.”

He said he didn’t think he could forgive, at least not yet. “Until you forgive, you’re not going to settle your anger,” I said.

Are you angry at someone? Is there someone you need to forgive? I hope you’ll forgive that person because only then you see your anger begin to abate.

The Apostle Paul said it this way: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

Go ahead, brothers, forgive someone from your heart, and you’ll suddenly find yourself walking much, much lighter.