Fit of Rage
On January 4th of this year, a man named Matthew Traywick was shot multiple times and killed in the parking lot of a Target store in Savannah, Georgia. He was only 33 years old, leaving behind a wife and three young children. Police arrested and charged a man named Tyler Linn, age 30, with the murder. When a person does something like this, the question is almost always asked, “Why did he do it?” Apparently, it was over one thing: a parking spot.
A life has been taken, families’ hearts have been broken, and Tyler’s foreseeable future will be a prison cell. To kill someone over a parking spot is unbelievable, but more than likely the shots were not fired the moment Tyler could not park his car. It likely began with a general disagreement over who “got there first,” then boiled over into a heated argument that quickly turned into a violent scene of rage. Many people cannot believe that someone would be willing to kill over something so petty, but when anger is embraced, reason flies out the window.
The apostle James once wrote to fellow believers, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20, ESV). In a way, anger stands in direct opposition to holy living. We are never more like demons than when we fly into a fit of rage. Cain is an example of this. He allowed bitterness and envy to dwell in his heart, and eventually, in anger, he murdered his own brother, Abel.
Anger is not manifested only through physical violence. We are also called to be “slow to speak.” How often do we spew hostility and destruction with our words? Just as James said that human anger works against God’s righteousness, he also declared that the tongue is a “world of unrighteousness” (James 3:6a). You may have never punched someone in the face, but how many times have you verbally lashed out at them behind their back? How many times have you spoken in haste and bitterness against a fellow believer?
Let go of your anger and bitterness and lay them at the feet of Christ. Embrace the heart of humility and mercy that His Spirit gives. Remember that Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
