The red sea of anger

I preached on anger a few months ago, and would have loved to have this poem from Ben Witherington available at the time.

One of the things I talked about was how so many of us excuse our anger by saying that there is such a thing as righteous anger. The point I made in the sermon was that righteous anger is actually pretty rare, and that while I can trust God to feel and express righteous anger, I’m not so sure I can trust myself to refrain from sinning when I am angry. Best to avoid anger altogether, as much as possible, even though feeling angry isn’t in and of itself a sin. But as Dallas Willard has written, "Headaches are no sin, but do we really need them?"

From the poem referenced earlier:

While there is righteous anger
It’s seldom the case
This is the motivator
Of acts done in haste.

Anger leads to violence
More often than not
Stealing what righteousness
A fallen person’s got.

Part the red sea in your brain
With the Spirit’s aid
Or leave a trail of victims
From choices you have made.