When It's Hard · Conflict & Hurt
Anger
For when you feel: furious, losing my temper, rage, about to blow up
You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger. For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.
The MinuteHomily
The message is typed and your thumb is hovering over send. In that hot second, James asks for three gears in a strict order. "Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." Most of our damage comes from driving them backwards. Anger is not always sin, for Jesus Himself overturned tables, but it is always a signal, and the verse carries a hard mercy about it: "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." You can be right about the injustice and still be holding the wrong tool, a fire that cooks nothing and burns everything. So hear first. Breathe. Pray for ten seconds. Then ask what lives underneath the anger, usually hurt or fear, and hand that to God. He can work with what is underneath.
By the MinuteHomily editors
A prayer for this moment
Lord, slow me down. Make me swift to hear, slow to speak, and show me what's underneath this fire; then take it from my hands. Amen.
“Where there is injury, pardon.”
Prayer of St. Francis
Hymns for this moment
“Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” · after St. Francis
“Dona Nobis Pacem” · trad. canon
One small step
Institute the ten-second rule today: hear, breathe, pray, *then* speak.
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