Today's Scripture Reading (September 27, 2024): Genesis 16
Anger is seldom
rational. I have had people mad at me, and I still can't understand what they
think I have done. Just to be fully accountable, I also know people who are angry
with me, and I fully understand their anger. I would like nothing more than to
go back in time and change the circumstances. Maybe the real mystery is a third
group of people: People who should be mad at me but, for some unknown reason,
have decided to forgive me and love me instead. I want to be like the people in
that third group. But anger isn't rational, so it can't always be explained.
And sometimes, I want nothing more than to point that fact out, but that is
probably not my best response or my finest moment.
I am unsure what Abram
might want to say to Sarai in this situation. We know what he said: "Your
slave is in your hands, Do with her whatever you think best" (Genesis
16:6a). But I often wonder what Abram really wanted to say. I know what I would
have said if it was me, but then Sarai would probably have divorced me. My
response would have been something like this. "Let me get this straight.
You are upset because you haven't had a child. So, you came up with a plan. You
gave me your servant girl so that I could sleep with her. The purpose of this
union was so that your servant girl could get pregnant, and you could claim the
child as yours. So, everything goes as you planned. I slept with Hagar, and she
got pregnant. I understand it hasn't been like you thought it would be, but how is that my fault? You have got to be
kidding me." Okay, maybe I would have left off that last sentence. But
essentially, this is the situation. However, Abram knows there is no rational
way to escape this. And so, he tells his wife, "Do whatever you think is
best with her."
I think Abram understands that anger is seldom
rational. Our heart often wants what it wants. And when the pain comes on us,
all we want is the pain to disappear. I have had conversations like this with
people. They have set their situation up, and everything has gone as planned,
but not always as we should have seen. We should have seen the consequences,
but we didn't. And we get angry. And maybe the thing we are angry at the most,
although we don't admit it, is that we are getting what we deserve. And so we
try to push the blame off on someone else.
In the end, I think we get it. We aren't really
mad at our husbands or wives. They just happen to be close by. Maybe they need
a safe space to vent their anger, and we provide that space. However, we also know
we wish we could have done things differently. The real win we need to get to
is that we will do things differently next time if there is a next time.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Genesis 17
Note: The latest Sermon from VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) - The World of Jesus: Between Moses and Muhammad.
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