Here’s another thoughtful message from the pen of Reverend Mark Adams, Senior Pastor of Redland Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland:
In a series of events sounding like the lyrics to a bad country and western song, an Iowa man (let’s call him “George”), recently lost his job, his house, his girlfriend, and his unemployment benefits.
It all started when George tried to buy a candy bar. He put a dollar bill in a vending machine at the Polaris Industries plant where he worked as a forklift operator. The Twix bar he wanted got stuck, so he put in ANOTHER dollar, but nothing happened. George then banged the machine; no effect. Then he rocked it, still no Twix bar. At this point he allegedly commandeered his handy-dandy forklift, picked the machine up and dropped it from a height of two feet onto the concrete floor. The former vet says the Twix came out along with two others, but he was still upset over the vending machine taking his extra dollar, so he repeated the forklift action, lifting and dropping the vending machine multiple times.
George put the visibly damaged machine back in its original place, but a supervisor who showed up didn’t like what he saw. A few days later, George lost his job due to this misconduct. CNN reported that the financial stress ended his relationship with his girlfriend and caused him to move in with his brother. A judge denied his claim for unemployment benefits, saying he willfully disregarded his employer’s interests. “That machine was trouble,” George said. “They fired me, and now I hear they have all new vending machines there.” George reports he’s presently employed at Wal-Mart.
Can you relate with George’s plight? Has there ever been a time when anger led you to do something that you knew was wrong, even though God’s still, small voice warned you NOT to do it? Did that one action lead to another and then another? Did your “little” sin snowball until you found yourself in a big mess? The fact is most “big” sinful acts almost always start with “little” ones.
I’m reminded of Proverbs 30:33 where it says, “As churning cream produces butter and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife….” and of Proverbs 14:12 which says, “There is a way that seems right to man but in the end it leads to destruction.”
We would avoid much grief and pain in life if, when we feel our anger building, we would BE STILL and know that God is God and obey His inner promptings. (c) 2014 Mark Adams
