Cart rage

The Dagwood comic strip in my morning paper today was amusing. He was in the grocery store pushing a cart when another shopper bumped into him. She immediately upbraided him for not watching where he was going. Though he tried to apologize, she was incensed. Then the PA system announced that folks should avoid that aisle due to a case of cart rage!

That scene's really not so far-fetched today. It's apparent to me that people tend to become much angrier much quicker over much less. To be candid, I myself have much less patience than I remember having in the past. Maybe that's a function of growing a bit older, but I'm not so sure. I believe many of us are living under a great deal of tension day by day, and it boils over unexpectedly at the slightest things. Road rage claimed the life of a man in a parking lot near my office last year. The fellow parked next to him felt he had swung in too close. They argued. The "offended party" reached into his car, pulled out a revolver, and shot the "offender" dead. Sadly, this kind of thing is happening all around the country -- whether it's road rage or domestic violence or workplace/school/shopping mall shootings. Lots of people are operating on a very short fuse. And the means to act out vengeful fantasies are readily accessible. Watching the nightly news in my city makes me wonder if we haven't stepped back in time to the days of the Wild West.

Clearly, there are plenty of good reasons why people are upset. The economy is brutal. Folks are upside down on their most significant possessions. Commute-time is fierce. The Gulf oil spill is devastating. The federal government seems at a partisan impasse on many things, and when it does act, people don't like the result. Societal mores have changed dramatically, generations in the same family seem to be talking different languages. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq plod on. And these are just some of the big things. It's the little things, the day to day things, that really get to us. That's where patience wears too thin. Suddenly, without warning, we erupt at a loved one, a co-worker, a neighbor. Then, when the dust finally settles, we can't help wondering who this person is in our own skin.

Okay, so maybe you can't relate to that. But if you can, you might be wondering how a professed Christian can have such an emotional meltdown. The reason, as I see it, is that despite our commitment to Christ, sin/sinfulness is never far below the surface. There are times when anger is appropriate, of course. When there is injustice to another, for instance. But more often our anger arises from something else, a sense of our own personal injury or perceived slight.

The Bible acknowledges anger, but the apostle Paul counsels that even in our anger, we should not sin. That is, we should not allow our anger to take over and cause us to lose our grip on being a child of God. Admittedly, that's easier said than done. We typically don't act very rationally when we've crossed that invisible line between irritation and rage.

But by the grace of God, we don't have to live on that other side of the line. We can ask divine forgiveness and seek God's help in coming to terms with our emotions, including unbridled anger. For the welfare of society, for the peace of our homes, and for our own sense of well-being, we need to do that. Oops! I may have just made you mad!