Dear Family and Friends,

I wonder if you would agree that one of the best Korean restaurants in town used to be a small shop on Cooke Street run by a woman who called herself the Angry Korean Lady.

I’m not sure if it was because no one would dare work for her but she ran the restaurant all by herself.

Yup, and because she did everything, she placed rules printed on nice floral paper at every table.

It went something like this:

ANGRY KOREAN LADY
HOUSE RULES


“I’M ALREADY ANGRY, DON’T MAKE ME MORE ANGRY”

1. Write down your order and BRING IT TO ME IN THE KITCHEN. If you don’t bring me your order I won’t make your food. (FIRST ORDER IN, FIRST SERVED)

2. BYOB!!! You must bring some for AKL or there is a bottle fee.

A) No Coors light – it gives me a headache. 

B) No Yellowtail – it gives me a stomachache.

3. If you BYOB; bring your own cups and supplies. DO NOT use mine because I don’t like – HATE – to wash dishes. 

4. You must order your own plate. (e.g. 4 people; 4 orders)

5. If you want a fork or knife put it on the order slip.

6. If you ask for extra plate/fork/knife etc. you must wash all your own dishes before you leave.

7. Water is self serve. 2nd door, 3rd shelf. Fill water from the sink.

The list went on…but her food was worth it!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned anger was one of the stages of grieving. Given all the anger we see in the world today, I want to take us a bit deeper into understanding anger and learning what the Bible and Jesus says about anger. 

We have all experienced anger, but do we really understand why we get angry? I recently found one of the better explanations of anger in a book written by Dallas Willard. He simply explains that anger is our will reacting to an obstruction of our will. For example, have you ever gotten angry:

  • When a child is not behaving the way we asked or expected? 
  • When a driver cuts you off on the freeway or takes the parking stall you were heading for?
  • When someone is critical of you, disrespecting the image you have of yourself?
  • When you didn’t get what you thought you deserved (recognition, promotion, raise, etc.)?

When someone disagreed with, or disregarded, something you felt strongly about? (Think politics)

If so, your anger arose from someone obstructing your will, your expectations, your world as you wanted it to be.

Is getting angry a sin? No. We are made in God’s image and likeness and there were many mentions of God getting angry in the Bible.

The Bible says much about anger and more so, about controlling our anger. Here are just a few of the verses that show anger is not a sin. 

“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.” Psalm 37:8. “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26-27

So why does the Bible speak so much about controlling our anger? Well, if we were to look for the root cause of most of the world’s problems today, we will find that most began with someone’s will being obstructed, which turned into anger, which turned into bitterness or contempt, which turned into hatred or revenge… Do you see where this is going?

The sin of Cain, who killed his brother, started with anger (Genesis 4:5). Cain’s will was obstructed when he did not receive the favor of the Lord he so wanted.

Our lesson is this: when we don’t stop at anger, all hell literally breaks loose.

Now I realize you probably want suggestions on how to stop your anger from sliding towards sin.

Rather than doing that today, I suggest we first reflect on any anger that lingers within us. Let’s first check to see if our anger stems from an obstructed will.

If you find this to be true, ask yourself this: how important was my will that someone obstructed?

It’s not bad if your obstructed will is important to you. Convictions are good so hold your ground.

We will learn more about how Jesus wants us to handle our convictions.

In love always,