Let Not The Sun Go Down ...

Donald’s girlfriend had nor read my blog yesterday but when she arrived at our Memorial Day cookout, she handed me this hand-woven silk bookmark from Indonesia.

How’s that for coincidence?

She and Donald also brought her parents to meet us for the first time.

Hummm.

Remember the chair cushions I mistakenly sent off to the mission last week? Well, Wes arrived at the party bringing his own chair, one large enough to fit his robust form. So no problem with chairs.

Remember how I’d sent two loads of stuff to the mission last week? Well Barbara brought six huge bags of clothes for us to take to the mission; so our house is again full of mission donations!

Warren and Carol brought in so much food that they needed a garden cart to transport it. Helen’s mother brought Ginny flowers. Eve brought buns. Donald brought drinks. Jennifer brought ice cream sandwiches. And the girl next door brought the baby which outshined even Matilda the duck as star of the show; never have I seen a better behaved baby, A real charmer.

A great contribution to the party’s success was made by a lady who was not even there, one I have never met face to face, my e-friend Jamie Dawn.

In her blog a few months back, Ms Dawn revealed how to make a 15-foot high gusher by adding Mentos breath mints to a bottle of diet Coke. As soon as I read her formula, I realized that this could be used to illustrate a Bible verse:

“Let not the sun go down on your wrath”.

During our devotional time after the meal (we’ve followed this custom for ages) I spoke on this phrase.

Here’s, more or less, what I said:

Last week I yelled at a book.

It was a self-help book and a phrase in it touched a nerve.

Last week the news said south of us In Miami, a man threw his two children out of a 15-story hotel window, then jumped himself.

Last week a young man just north of us ran his car into a family at a McDonalds, then backed up and ran over them again.

Last week at a public event in Germany a young man went berserk, pulled out a knife and stabbed more than 20 strangers as he ran through the crowd.

I don’t know about the other guys, but I yelled at that book because I’ve been holding some anger inside, harboring it in my heart.

I hold grudges and I still feel angry over slights that I received 50 years ago. These little white mints represent different things I feel angry about:

This mint is one of my first memories — my mother swatted me with a broom and knocked me down a flight of stairs. I still feel angry about that.

This one is for a boss who told me to shut a window.

This one is my first wife.

This one…

Holding grudges inside, keeping anger in my heart, builds pressure and frustration and depression. I’ve heard that depression is anger turned inward. Or if anger breaks out, then you end up yelling at books or other violent things.

This bottle of diet coke bottle represents my heart.

Let’s see what happens when I hold all these petty slights, resentments, bitterness, anger in my heart.

Do not try this at home! I am a professional!

(When the first mint hit the coke, the foam spewed 15 feet in the air. Spectacular! Thanks Jamie. I wish I’d got pictures.)

Well, we see what happens when I regard iniquity in my heart. “Let not the sun go down on your wrath”.

How?

I have three suggestions:

One: when I feel anger over something somebody does to me, I need to remember the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me”. I ask the Lord to remind me of a time when I have done the same sort of thing to someone else as is being done to me. And Bingo! He does that. He shows me times when I have been unjust to you children, of times I have been unreasonable with Ginny, of times I have belittled, cheated —made life harder for someone than it needs to be. Forgive me of my trespasses just as I forgive so and so for pissing me off right now.

Second: And I think this is the hardest thing any Christian is ever called on to do. In His sermon from the Mount, Jesus said, “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”.

Go directly to the person involved and get straight.

Don’t complain to your friend. Don’t tell your wife. Don’t seal it inside. Go directly to the other person and straighten things out face to face.

Third, the same passage that says “Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind”. This passage is from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, chapter 4, verses 21 through 32.

Be renewed in the spirit of my mind. A thing that helps me with this when I begin to feel anger, to feel bitterness and resentment build, when my train of thought goes negative — I say the word STOP! I say it out loud. I break that train of thought by the word STOP! and put my mind on a new track. And I do this as often as necessary.

Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.

Last week, I saw a tee-shirt in a mail-order catalog that came in; the shirt said:

Don’t Go To Bed Angry
Stay Up All Night Plotting Revenge!

After the devotional talk, some folks sat chatting, some took a nap, some strolled next door to visit dogs, some exchanged recipes, some splashed in the pool, some clipped cuttings from garden plants to root, some ate more goodies…

Some talked travel: Yosemite, Arkansas, San Francisco, Blue Springs

And one stole Ginny’s lucky bamboo and a birdfeeder.

But I’m not angry at him.

Not me.

Just told him to get out of town by sundown!