What makes you angry?

"Find somebody who is depressed, tired, exhausted; you get them angry and it's like rocket fuel. I mean, it is unbelievable energy and stimulus. There is power within us when we're angry that can frighten us." - Rob Bell

For those of you who have become familiar with Nooma short films presented by Rob Bell, you will know how powerful his messages are. They'd be impressive standing on their own let alone accompanied by the powerful imagery that has become so recognizable within Nooma films. Today, totally out of impulse I bought another one, called "Store". Why I picked "Store" out of 17 other titles is beyond me, but obviously not beyond the Spirit guiding me because I've just watched it and as I did, I felt like Rob Bell was speaking directly to me, like his eyes were penetrating my mind from inside the television.

"Store" deals with people's anger, the unnecessary anger that people carry around with them every day, the anger that causes a man to tailgate us on the highway, that causes arguments in parking lots and that causes people to launch attacks on unsuspecting family members just because they're the closest target. It speaks of what powerful energy anger is and the power with which it yields control over us so that we begin not to like ourselves. It addresses another angle on anger too, a passion that is fuelled, a proactive response to anger, harnessing the energy to make a difference in this world.

Recently I've been experiencing both of these responses to anger. Knowing myself to be a "chilled out" individual who is not phased out by much in this life, I find it difficult to deal with those feelings of irritation and anger when they do surface and I begin to dislike the person I am becoming inside. I have been questioning the source of this anger and asking myself if I am justified in feeling this way? What Rob Bell has taught me though is how important our outward response is to this powerful emotion. Are we going to allow this potential explosion within us fuel a negative or a positive expression? If we know within our hearts that our response has been one that has been acted out of integrity, out of love for those looked down upon, out of a passion for protecting God's creation, we need not feel guilty for feeling and acting upon those feelings, were they not after all given to us by the creator of all things in the first place. As Rob Bell says, "We need to listen to our anger because God may be using it to get our attention".

The question is, "Why am I angered? because that anger is going to lead somewhere." We live in a world where people get angry about things that DO NOT matter, while at the same time people don’t get angry about things that DO matter. It's all about the selfish attitude, "how does this affect me?" We should rather be asking, "What is it that affects others?" There are things worth getting angry about, the injustice in this world, the way people are treated unfairly because of their social status, the way the environment is destroyed for selfish gain because it has no voice. There are a multitude of good reasons to be angry, reasons worth making a noise over.

Rob Bell ends off by saying "May you become aware of your anger. May you learn to channel it, to focus it, direct it into something beautiful. And may it fuel sacred acts of healing and restoration". I don't know about you, but the reason I share this with you is because it is a challenge to each one of us to use something so powerful that is in every one of us to make a difference in the right direction...

What makes you angry? What fuels your passion? What are YOU going to do about it? Does your anger make the world a better place?

Integrity challenged!

I was recently sitting in a service listening to a sermon titled "Living with Integrity". It was a fantastic sermon comparing us with the Titanic. If our integrity is compromised just as the integrity of the Titanic was compromised, we will sink. A definition was presented for integrity as "The quality or state of being complete or undivided or incorruptible". One thing that was bothering me constantly however, was, "How do we compete in a corrupt world within our work place for example, with people who don't have that level of integrity?" Let me explain myself using an example... I work as a freelance cameraman/ director in the television industry where you're only as good as your last job. The problem is, unless you land that first job, how do you prove that you're capable? And some times, to land that first job, a "little white lie" (we all know a lie is a lie), painting a better picture of your potential is acceptable... in "the world" that is. If I'm not going to compromise my integrity and tell the absolute truth, chances are, my competition is going to get the job. My question as a result is, where does integrity leave me then?

There was recently a film on the Cinema Nouveau Circuit called "Three Dollars". It is a critical analysis of the greed and corruption that is challenging traditional society. A chemical engineer going by the name Eddie (David Wenham) is testing soil for contamination as part of an environmental impact assessment. When the company tries to bury his honest assessment of severe contamination to save money on the project, Eddie, a man with high integrity blows the whistle on their attempts. When he leaks the information to the press, his reward for having integrity is getting fired and finding himself unemployed with only three dollars to his name. With a wife and a six year old daughter as his responsibilty, the position he finds himself in, destitute and desperate, is amplified dramatically. The film goes on to deal with the question I asked earlier, "How do we compete in a corrupt world, against people who have no integrity?" It deals with his gruelling task to make a new start without denying his honest, generous nature or compromising his integrity. A good man is tested in all areas of his life, tested in his relationship with his wife and daughter; tested in his financial situation, and tested in his morality regarding his work. One question that is addressed is, "Can ordinary people afford to live according to their values?" and "How relevant are those values to the world anyway?" The conclusion, the more corrupt the world becomes, the more instable our lives as moral, Christian human beings with any level of integrity becomes. We will be persecuted in ways we never imagined, we will be tested and sometimes, we may fall but that is where we call on the grace and strength of God, grace to forgive us where we fall and strength to maintain our integrity so that we do not sink.

The ultimate positive outcome, as with all trials, is only the strengthening of our character to remove us one more notch from the world's lack of moral fibre, making us all the more vulnerable and noticeable. And increasing our faith in the Lord's provision all the more.