Some of us were awakened last night by the rains and thunder and lightning. When I came into the office this morning, it was evident that the storms had been fierce: there were puddles of water in the hallway inside Door #2. That wind pushed the water under the door jamb and into the hallway. Thank goodness for concrete floors! 

This is not the only storm we’re facing these days. There’s still a fierce argument about vaccines. The good news is that the Pfizer vaccine was full approved (not just for emergency use) and so that overcomes the objections of some folks that the vaccine was rushed. There has been a slight uptick in vaccinations, perhaps because of that, for which we are grateful.

There’s also a storm of bad behavior in various places. Last week I listened to a patron berate a teenaged waitperson when his meal was slow in being served, even though it is well known that reopening restaurants are struggling to get enough employees to return to pre-pandemic service levels. This was despite the fact that there was a sign as we entered the restaurant saying “we are still short-staffed, so please be kind to those of us who showed up for work today.”

We see the same sort of bad behavior in the public square: rudeness, partnered with inaccuracy and innuendo, seem to be the order of the day.

This is not new, of course. There are enough instances of Pharisees making snarky comments to Jesus (to Jesus!) to remind us of that. 

We’re all still tense from the pandemic, which lingers unreasonably. We are still trying to manage our own anxieties for ourselves and our children as they return to school or we return to our workplaces. We are all wondering about the various political hot spots and places where natural disasters are hurting our siblings in Christ. And it’s human and reasonable to feel all the natural emotions that bubble up about such things. 

But there’s a difference between feeling all those feelings and using them as an excuse to lash out at others, as the fellow in the restaurant did to the teenager who was serving him. Yes, we get angry, but how do we appropriately direct that anger?

One of the things you’ll notice as we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark in the upcoming Sundays is how very human and occasionally emotional Jesus is in Mark’s telling of the story. This week, Jesus is trying to avoid a bunch of people who want him to help them. The following week, Jesus tells Peter to shut up when Peter says something inappropriate. I’ll unpack those stories in my sermons, but here’s the thing: it’s very rare for Jesus to trash someone, even if reasonable people might agree that that someone deserved it. Even in the grip of high emotion, more often than not, Jesus either directs his anger appropriately (occasionally at the Pharisees, once at moneychangers in the Temple) or uses it as a teachable moment. 

I identified with the anger piece this morning as I drove into work today. A person in a Jeep who wanted to get to work five minutes faster than was reasonable threaded his way through several cars with very little clearance and at very high speed, giving several of us a fright. In the moment, I was tempted to do several things: make an inappropriate gesture, say a very bad word, even (insanity is real) chase after him and give him a piece of my mind. 

Instead, because I couldn’t get his license number down or take a photo, I breathed and said a prayer. I started off in the easy place: “keep everyone safe from this idiot.” 

Then I breathed and prayed “help this person know how his actions affected others around him.” 

Then I breathed again and prayed, “whatever is compelling this person to drive so unsafely, give him peace of heart so he doesn’t need to do it anymore.”

Note that it took me three breaths to get to a place of empathy. I suspect when any of us gets angry, it’s going to take a little time to refocus that way. But I’m glad I did. 

Did my prayers change this storming driver? It’s probably as unlikely as my prayers stopping the wind and rain. But sometimes we pray not to change the storms in others’ lives, but because it eases our own stormy hearts. 

Breathe and know that the first place we try to heal when we are angry is our own stormy hearts. Then and only then can we assess how to use that anger or whether to let it go. 

Be blessed and be a blessing-

Mary+