Be angry and do not sin; reflect in your heart while you are on your bed and be silent.
PSALM 4:4 (CSB)

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Don’t sin by letting anger control you.
Think about it overnight and remain silent. 
(New Living Translation)

Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.
Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.
(The Message)

I may have sinned yesterday afternoon. Frustration boiled up and maybe a little over. We make our home in one of the most technologically advanced places on earth. However, all of the wonderful advancements have skipped our neighborhood. 

For fourteen years we have lived here in this nice home in our nice neighborhood in a nice community. The nice internet services all the other neighborhoods around us have available to them are completely unavailable to our neighborhood. The only option we have had for lo this decade and a half is DSL. DSL was State of the Art in the year 2000. 

Working from home the last year and a half has proven that DSL is in no way up to the demands of supplying the necessary bandwidth for Zoom calls and all-day productivity. On its best days, the bright red light would glow on the router notifying us that it required a bit of a rest before going back to trickling tiny bits and bytes into our home. 

After much research and not a little frustration, we discovered how wifi hotspots could amplify our meager coverage. This works well until you run through a month’s worth of capacity in less than a week and have to wait three more weeks for it to work again. 

We tried a very expensive small business arrangement. It worked about as well as the DSL. So, if we are going to have to put up with DSL speeds, we might as well go back to DSL and its lower price. So, we called our beloved internet and telephone provider and asked to be moved back to our old unreliable friend DSL.

We were informed that once we gave up on DSL, we could not go back. Neither could we go forward with the hip and cool new fiber internet. Only the surrounding neighborhoods can get that. When I asked what our options were I was told, “You do not have internet.” 

So, if you are still following this lengthy rant, you can rightly guess that this is the inflection point when I moved toward anger. There is good news here. I did not say bad words. I did not yell at the service representative. I did mention to my bride that no positive vibes remained toward that company. We will no longer do business with them. Of course, they decided they will no longer do business with us, so I guess it breaks even. 

How do you handle those moments that cause anger to flare?

1. Be angry and do not sin. Let your anger guide you toward a positive, beneficial solution and not a destructive or hurtful one.
2. Do not let anger control you. Keep your peace even though you would rather rage. 
3. Complain if you must, but don’t lash out. Lashing out compounds problems. 
4. Let your heart do the talking and not your head. Your heart is full of empathy and sympathy. Your head is full of arguments. 

I made this somewhat redundant list because I need to remember it when I talk to the communications company that is too big to service our small neighborhood. I need this list when I talk to a person on the telephone from that company who had nothing to do with the company’s decision to thumb their nose at me. 

Today you will most likely have an opportunity to get ticked off. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let anger control you. Complain if you must, but don’t lash out. Let your heart do the talking and not your head. Feel free to remind me of this from time to time. I am still working on it myself. 

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I will control my angry impulses.

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Our Father, you created anger to move us toward righting wrongs. Our adversary uses anger to wound. Deliver us from sinful anger. Empower us to use righteous anger to right wrongs. Amen.