12 Angry Men

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.�?(Proverbs 16:32)

In the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men directed by Sidney Lumet, Henry Fonda played a dissenting juror in a murder trial who convinced the others the case is not as clear as it appeared in court. Every day we are placed in situations with other people which can cause us to be one of those 12 angry men, and we should learn to control that anger lest we become fools. Anger is like warning lights in the front of the car that signal something is wrong under the hood, and we should look closer to examine the source of the problem.

When we lose control of a circumstance that we have placed Great Expectations on and they do not result in what we expect, we are tempted to get angry but the Bible says do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosoms of fools.(Ecclesiastes 7:9) The source of many anger is both fear and protection of our possessions or rights. When we believe we have a right to something, we have factored God out of the equation to allow a different or better outcome. If that outcome is different from what we expect, this can lead to fear and then anger.

If Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson can control their tempers in Anger Management, so can you. If the delivery man fails to deliver a crucial package on time due to something beyond his control, you may get angry, but the source of your anger is fear of what might happen to you or what this might say about your abilities to get things done. You no longer are in control of the circumstance and this creates fear. So the next time you get angry ask God what is the source of that anger because God may allow failure to let you see what is under your hood.