August 6, 2025

“A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but one slow to anger calms strife.” – Proverbs 15:18

One of the things that saddens me the most about our current political climate is the complete breakdown of productive dialogue. If two people disagree, it seems the immediate reaction is anger. Actually, I feel we are getting closer and closer to the immediate reaction being not only anger, but hatred for one another. Edifying discussion no longer takes place. People on different sides of an issue simply yell at one another until the loudest one wins. Now, regardless of which side of an issue you are on, it becomes very easy to say, “I am simply responding to the way they acted…I became angry because they became irrational, argumentative, or just downright mean.” Well, C.S. Lewis has something very convicting to say about this kind of attitude. He says, “Provocation doesn’t make me ill-tempered: it only shows me how ill-tempered I already am.”

Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). If the anger, hatred, and irrational nonsense of today, makes you angry, hateful and irrational, then the current climate is simply bringing out what already exists within in you. A harsh word stirs up anger, but a gentle answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). If you really want to change the narrative, then what exists inside of you must change first. Pray God would change your heart, fill you with peace in him, and use you to be the calming, rational, loving voice in the midst of the chaos.

Lord, we are surrounded by irrational, angry, hateful speech on a regular basis. Fill our hearts with You and then let our speech simply be an overflow of You into the world around us.

In Christ’s Service

Pastor Shane Cannon