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Plans Interrupted

After a long day of travel, all I wanted to do was check into my hotel. As usual, there was a card on file from my work, then they wanted a card for incidentals. After they ran my personal card, they said the card wouldn’t go through. I asked why and they said they tried to put the whole length of the stay, plus the incidental charge, plus the resort fees. I said that didn’t make any sense as they had a company card on file and we were told no credit card authorization form was needed. Let’s just say it went downhill from there. (No internet in the room, messed up reservations, etc etc) And no, I don’t have any credit cards, Dave Ramsey at work 🙂 I was angry. Not quite psycho Sol as my wife would say. I felt lost. I felt isolated. I felt angry. Things like this shouldn’t be happening. I had everything planned out. My angry spilled into my relationship with the person at the front desk and colored the rest of the night, including lack of sleep worrying about it all getting sorted out.

We all have days when anger gets the better of us. For me, it’s usually when my plans are interrupted, change is made without my input, or more generally when I don’t have any sense of control in the matter. As I do most days, I turned to scripture for comfort.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” – James 1:19-20

“Good sense makes one slow to anger,
    and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11

I know that anger doesn’t help. It inflames the situation. It makes everyone on edge. I also know it’s a basic human emotion that can cause trouble but can, when used appropriately lead to action. I also what Master Yoda says about anger leading to the dark side 🙂

The manager tried to calm me down. He tried to explain the situation. He worked around what he could. I get it. So often we look at the loss of control, the loss of choice, and get angry. We are not thinking clearly, nor are we allowing God to flow through us. There are a million books written on anger management, but in the heat of the moment, they are hard to remember.

The Lord wants us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Anger doesn’t bring God’s righteousness but rather his wrath. Let us try to be more Christ-like and find the sources of our anger. Then use that information to find answers to help stop those sources or better yet, find ways to change that anger into action.

Are you willing to find your sources of anger? Are you ready to make a plan to turn anger into action?

I am willing and ready with the help of God.