Stabbings, Shootings and Three Ways to Defuse Our Time Bomb

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

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This time it was knives. A student rampaged through the halls of Franklin Regional High School, slashing with two long knives and leaving a trail of blood and 22 wounded victims. So Murrysville, Pennsylvania joins the list that no one wants to be on. Like Newtown, Fort Hood - places where one angry person changes lives and families forever.

It's a good bet that anger was probably again a part of it. In fact, anger's at the root of most of the explosions we hear about in the headlines. And lots more that never make it to the headlines.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stabbings, Shootings and Three Ways to Defuse Our Time Bomb."

Rage that detonates every day: at home, at work, at school, at sporting events, in traffic. Often the trigger for that rage turns out to be something relatively small. It's like the final drop that made this glass full of anger overflow. And there are always victims; occasionally bleeding on the outside, almost always bleeding on the inside.

The world's best-seller, the Bible, says this about the power of our angry words. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 12:18 and then Proverbs 18:21. "Reckless words pierce like a sword" and "the tongue has the power of life and death."

But behind the guns and the knives, that verbal sword is the deeper issue; the ticking time bomb of seething anger inside which seems more widespread than ever. Making places we once thought were "safe" increasingly more dangerous. We need some ways to defuse the bomb inside.

Well, first, unload your pain before you explode your pain. Behind our anger is almost always hurt, over mistreatment, failure, frustration over a relationship, feeling attacked, excluded, circumstances beyond our control. Stored-up hurt morphs into the ticking time bomb of rage. Unless you unload it, not in a blast of anger that scars often innocent victims, but by facing your deepest hurts with someone you can trust: a family member, a friend, a counselor or pastor. But say it. Don't stuff it where it feeds that ugly anger monster.

Secondly, reach out to the people in the shadows; those shy ones - the people who seem to be saying, "Leave me alone." That person who's negative or mean or left out. It's the people who feel isolated - sometimes by their own actions - who need us the most.

Most importantly, let God into the darkness. There's only so much people can do to heal our wounds and to defuse the ticking bomb inside us. I met a man recently whose anger from what's happening in every part of his life had brought him, as he said, "to the end of my rope." That day he poured it all out first to me, and then to God. I could listen. God could heal. And the healing has begun.

Yes, it's risky to let someone into that room in our soul where the hurt and anger are stored. But it's a whole lot more risky not to. I need - I think everyone needs - a place to go with the wounds and feelings that have no words. I found that place in the God who "gets" me because He's been here as a victim of the worst of human injustice and brutality on that first Good Friday. Jesus is the God who understands. Who loves me enough to die for every wrong thing and every hurting thing I have ever done. He's my one safe place. He's your one safe place.

If you're not sure you belong to Him; if you've never let Him in to the darkest corners of your soul to do what only a Savior like Jesus can do, make this the day that you give you to Him. Our website is all about how to let that happen. I want to encourage you to go to ANewStory.com and experience for yourself this love of Jesus that has liberated so many. Come to the one safe place.