by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Putting Out the Fuse with Forgiveness

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

Just outside of Victor, Colorado is a trail that walks you through the mining history of the area. Dotted along this trail are these structures that held blasting material that allowed the miners to unearth gold. It is striking to see how many of these structures are near the bones of an old home.

These homes not only housed the miners, but their families too. How would you like your children playing next to one of these repositories?

We humans are the repository that holds a dangerous explosive. Anger is that explosive. This anger resides close to our families and friends and is in danger of being ignited at any moment. Paul, quoting the psalms (Psalms 4:4), states;

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger…”
Ephesians 4:26 English Standard Version

Paul understands that anger is a human emotion. Even Jesus felt anger. However, he does not give us permission to remain angry, to set off an explosion in our lives with our anger.

What would cause us to be and remain angry with someone, even someone close to us like our family? Anger is often associated with justice, or better yet, injustice. We become angry when we believe that we have been wronged. We want justice for the damage done to us. We might even feel justified in our anger that leads to our explosive behavior.

Over the years I’ve learned that the more justified we feel about our position, the more we validate our anger.

It’s hard to top the wrong the Jesus suffered on his cross. It was not unusual for crucified people to hurl curses at those who executed them. Living what he taught, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them”, words that would later be echoed by Stephen as he was wrongful stoned to death.

What should we do with our anger? Even if we feel justified, let Jesus’ forgiveness cover us so that his forgiveness might snuff out the fuse before our anger explodes. And how about not playing around the the repository of anger in our lives in the first place?

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado