Anger is a powerful motivator. It empowers our reason. It strengthens our resolve. It gains might as we nurture its spark into full flame. It burns as it turns into speech. It destroys relationships. It terminates opportunities. It ruins everything with one click beyond restoration into wrath.

The prior paragraph might be biographical. Actually, let’s call it what it is. It was autobiographical. I was ticked off recently. I began a text message with a few words chosen with precision. They would hit the target hard.

Then anger began a low boil inside me. I deleted the first text and added a little oomph! 

Anger really got on a roll then. A masterpiece of a pointed and powerful message sat fully formed and ready to send. 

I was just. I was righteous. I was ready to obliterate a relationship. That’s when I realized how wrong I was. 

One of my favorite questions is, “What does this make possible?” The only answer to this question regarding the text that was so carefully composed and alluringly anxious to give full release of my well-targeted wrath was a deep and lingering wound that may well have proved fatal to the relationship. 

I don’t know if you have ever held a ticking time bomb in your hands, but I have. The DELETE key is often my best friend. It reminds me how it is never too early to shut up. It reminds me how some words and their impact can never be taken away, never be healed this side of heaven.

Hours after deleting the best text I would have ever regretted, I enjoyed a gathering where my earlier target was used by God to bless my soul. 

Every time I read these chapters in Job featuring a young man who was smarter than God and wiser than wisdom, I want to place my arm around his shoulders and help him learn how to watch, wait, listen, and learn as God works out his will his way in his timing without any expression of our wrath to get it done. 

Anger can drive us toward justice. Wrath drives us into a ditch, off a cliff, and into the ocean of our foolishness. 

Learn to love the DELETE key. Use it every time anger exceeds its helpful bounds. Trust me when I tell you what it makes possible is infinitely better than what wrath offers.

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I will esteem the DELETE key over wrath every time.

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Our Father, thank you for delivering me from disaster. Please always deliver me from disasters of my own making. Keep me focused on helpfulness and not hatefulness. Amen.