Anger
~vs~
Peace
We experience thousands of circumstances everyday. Most are common and mundane. Then there are unique moments where the unexpected happens. When those occur we decide how we are going to respond. Most of us do not enjoy the unexpected. We don't like being surprised or having this not go as we thought they would. It throws a kink in our plans and we then have to deal with it. That is where the choice between anger or peace is made.
Each day we wake up and have an idea of how the day is going to go. We have goals as to what we are going to accomplish. When meeting those goals seem uncertain, blocked or impossible we choose either anger or peace. It happens with big goals, like a promotion at work. It also happens with small goals, like trying to get to work on time in heavy traffic.
Anger and peace aren't the only options. They both have relative responses as well. Relative responses are responses that either lead to or are a result of a response. Anxiousness and depression are two of anger's relative responses. Peace has patience and joy as two of it's relative responses.
The response we chose is based on how we perceive our goal & what we focus on:
Both groups of relative responses can have a cycling effect. The Self-focused cycle begins with uncertainty and anxiousness until the goal is blocked. . Once our goal is blocked the anxiousness can turn to anger. Here anger can cycle back to anxiousness and uncertainty as we attempt to figure out ways to still meet our goal. This happens in increasing frequency and intensity until we finally believe our goal is impossible and become depressed.
God-focused responses can have a similar cycling effect as well. While the uncertainty is still the beginning point, when peace is chosen it makes it easier to be patient, even when our goals appear to be blocked. That patience cycles back to peace which cycles to patience as we wait for God's will to be done. When it is, the result is joy. We can even chose joy in the midst of the God- focused cycle, since we have the assurance that God is in control.
'God reigns over all the nations,
He sits on His sits on His holy throne.'
-Psalms 47:8
In each circumstance we have 1/4 of a second to chose how we are going to respond. Not a lot of time. This is why it's important to have our default thoughts set. Our default thoughts are what we fall back to in a pinch. They are our reflexes. Setting our default thoughts is the mental equivalent of training our bodies in muscle memory. It takes time and intention and repetition. For more on how this is done check out: