LOVE is? NOT EASILY ANGERED

we'll take both here again and I really am on the road. You can probably hear the wind as I stand overlooking Monterey Bay. It is early May and it's a beautiful blue day with some horse tail clouds high in the sky and no, I wasn't just too long ago that the bay was calm and now it seems to be getting whipped up a bit. I don't I don't think this is what you would call angry seas but I think they're a bit perturbed. I love the color in clothes that's green and some shadowed areas where the kelp beds are and the farther out you look toward the horizon line it's almost black just a fine line between the light of the clouds the light blue of the sky and the deep blue green of the ocean. Angry seas interesting combination of words I've been in angry seeds before when I was a little guy. When I was seven and a half years old we came home from India on the Danish freighter, 5,000 tonne what we would call a tub today, the Johannes Merck but hit us typhoon three days out in the Indian Ocean. Now those seas were blazing mad they were hopping mad they were over the bow of the ship. I'm seven and a half years old and I think I'm gonna die I can't even remember America and I'm gonna die. Love is not angered easily. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not boast, it's not rude, it's not self-seeking and it's not easily angered. What is it about anger that we all identify with? Well we all know how it feels. This is Dick Poth the stories from the road here on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California and get out of the wind. It's in the mid-50s but it feels a bit happier than that and we'll finish this up in a few. So now we move from the disturbed seas of Northern California to the angry freeways of Southern California. Here I sit in our hotel room you might hear the soft hum of the freeway out in front in the background or you may find someone changing out rooms in the banging clatter of a hotel hallway but you know sometimes we have this expression or I have this expression. That guy made me so mad or that thing made me so mad. It angers a response isn't it? It's an emotion it's an easy place to go and it usually happens when one's will is thwarted our granddaughter Ali who now is the mother of two she's in her thirties and her folks tell the story of her once throwing a tantrum on a hotel room entryway in the in the lobby she was upset about something through herself down screamed and kicked they let it happen. That's always a challenge for me to let it happen but that's sometimes how it has to happen and then she stood up brushed down her little dress and said me better now that's probably not too bad way to handle anger. Anyway rather than pretend that we'll never feel angry scripture simply says to be slow to become angry that's actually in a letter that James the younger brother of Jesus wrote God is slow to anger abounding in love that's way back from the Psalms those are those are poems and songs written a thousand years before Jesus and this description is telling isn't that even though it says that God can get angry it says that he overflows with love so slow to anger abounding in love the connection between the two is clear isn't love puts the brakes on anger it slows it down for the sake of the one loved that goes back to the overarching theme of this text and Corinthians love is patient love is kind so anger in itself is not a violation it's not sinful to use the logical language but you hear this clearly with the apostle Paul in Ephesians the fourth chapter where he writes to the Ephesians in your anger do not sin this is verse 26 do not let the son go down while you're still angry it's saying keep short accounts if you will I love that couple that were asked what major marriage work after all these years and they said we never let the son go down on our anger always settle things and then they would pause they paused and said of course sometimes the son didn't go down till two or three o'clock in the morning I like that being hot tempered and people use all kinds of rationale for it well that's my Irishness or well I had reason being hot tempered usually involves making snap judgments seeking vindication for something and refusing to grant second chances you cross me you're done that kind of attitude but that's whatever that is that's not true love true love refuses to jump to conclusions refuses to jump to conclusions I've done that refuses to take revenge I don't think I've done that too much or hastily judging people refuses to do that I think I've probably done that the fact that love is not easily angered just highlights God's patient love for the entire world whatever part anger plays in my life where it shows up expresses itself we need to understand this that anger is a choice when I get angry it's my choice to be able to say I can't help myself that's not a true statement anger is a stance I take and clearly I take that stance when I feel I've been offended by something all right if I live there it'll be a miserable existence day in a day and it'll be a miserable existence for all those around me people won't want to be around me that's a great way to push people away is to just always be angry but if I control it I find solutions to challenges that I'd never have seen have a friend text graph who's now gone on to the Lord I asked him one day said text how you doing he said dick I'm hurrying so I can hurry some more in a hurry hurry world God says this when it comes to that natural reflex foes you know that anger thing I have two words for you slow down that's it this is foes in Southern California saying I'm out hope to be back in those Colorado mountains and high plains pretty soon God bless have a wonderful week bye