Month: September 2018

The glory decade for professional wrestling would have to be the 1980s.  It could be argued that Hulk Hogan was as big of name as Ronald Regan and Michael Jackson world-wide.  The target demographic for “rass-ling” were preteen and teenage boys along with their fathers.  So why didn’t I succumb like my friends around me to getting into all the colorful costumes, characters, and dramatic rage?  Well in a word – RESPECT.

For anyone who yells his head off without a life or death reason (and there are very few of them but certainly the military qualifies, in my opinion), I do not respect you or your approach.  Whether it is a neighbor, teacher, coach, athlete, or even a steroid filled actor playing an athletic role in a leotard, you have lost me.

So having “set the scene” for this post, let me continue with my narrative of why calmness for everyone is a great Christ-like trait.  I believe flying into a rage is a very natural human response when wronged, but I also believe it is ultimately a very immature one both socially and spiritually.

Life happens; the good, bad, and ugly.  When our first response is to crank up the blood pressure and let out a tirade to get even or ahead, then a teaching moment is lost.  A theme in my blog posts are about doing the easy/natural versus the Christ-like response.  Jesus continues to be so very patient with us and our flaws, but he wants to see us lean on Him and the attributes of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22).

How does God see those who allow themselves to explode into a manic-rage?

Not too well.  He sees them as FOOLS (Proverbs 29:11).  “Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.”  We are warned to get “rid of all forms of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (Col 3:8).

Using Jesus as our perfect example, here are a few techniques that He used when dealing with people, even the Pharisees/religious leaders who Jesus called out as “brood of vipers and hypocrites” for their sanctimonious ego and self-appointed positions of power.

• Jesus asked a lot of questions. Questions are a good way to flesh out any misunderstandings.  Be the calm one throughout so you can strip the emotion out and begin the problem solving.
• Jesus dealt with people in a calm but confident voice and demeanor. He always knew how to “read the room.”   When the religious phonies needed to be called out, He did so.  Then early in His ministry when the temple (“my Father’s house”) needed cleared out due to the filthy practices of a market, He did so with very few words.  Some situations call for direct action and that was one in no uncertain terms.  Reading this text in John 2, I get the impression, He had no trouble with the Jewish leaders trying to stop Him, because His authority was (and is) righteous and they ULTIMATELY KNEW IT.  That set the battle ground for them.

How about us?  I think in our heart of hearts we know His authority also.  Do we bow or do we scheme to keep our “power.”  I’ll save more about that for another post.

• Jesus made every situation a teaching moment. He truly connected with people.  He allowed them to make the conclusions, to own their decisions.  Still happens today!

The goal has to be our purposeful examination of self and how we can glorify God in the difficult circumstances that we face.  Will we keep our cool? – It’s a fight!  Satan would love for anger and rage to be on constant display in our lives.  When we are angry and raging, we are not letting God speak to us for His wisdom.  We again are just being foolish in His eyes.

The passage in Colossians, again chapter three, goes on to say in verses 9 and 10 this;

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Let us strive to keep away from our old self and put on that new self that is in the image of God!  So with your new self you can get into the ring with any “rassler” because your Creator always wins and that I will always RESPECT.

And by the way… I knew better than to ask my Dad about going to any professional wrestling match.  The wrestling match would have been with hay bales. I would have found myself up in the haymow with the bales coming at me DOUBLE TIME!  Not fun….