Your Feedback Please on a Portion from My Next Book

I’m writing a new book, currently titled Anger Management: Jesus Style.

Any initial response to that title?

Here’s a description of this book. “We can learn from Jesus, who never sinned when facing situations that usually make you and I angry, like the inadequacies of ourselves and others.”

Here is the opening material for the chapter on inadequacies. I would appreciate any kind of feedback you have. Does it make sense? Anything you don’t understand? Disagree with? Wonder about? Hope you’ll learn about from the rest of the chapter? Maybe have a story about your own struggle or how Jesus’s example has helped you? (If so, email me privately at [email protected] to receive the guidelines).

Here’s the opening portion of the chapter.

Imagine for a moment. You’ve been given an assignment to gather a team to work on a high-level project. This could be at work, in ministry, at your child’s school—no matter. The stakes are high. The future of the world is on the line.

No, this is not one of the many movies where a man (or woman) is released from prison in order to gather a group of other well-trained criminals to complete a death-defying espionage job and earn their freedom—if they live through it. (But if you want to think of a movie like that, have fun. It fits.)

As you pray and consider the best of the best for the project, you review the women’s qualifications and personalities. “Oh, no, I’m in big trouble. Every single one of these women has inadequacies and could prevent success. They cannot be trusted and chances are, they will fail me. I still have to choose. But who?

Your mind flicks to Amanda. “Maybe Amanda? After all, she is a natural born leader. Oh, true, but she tends to criticize people. The team will be demoralized by her superior spirit.

“Okay, how about Samantha?” you ask yourself. “She has lots of good qualities, but come to think of it, she becomes easily overwhelmed and can’t make a decision. Success is going to demand quick decisions.

“Hmm, I could consider Maria. She’s a go-getter but she becomes easily impatient when co-workers don’t complete their assignments as quickly as she does.”

As you consider each one, you are more convinced than ever the mission is doomed. There is not a single candidate who is adequate for the role. What am I going to do? If I don’t find the right people, disaster will endanger many lives and I will be blamed. I might be fired, demoted, or at the least, not considered for future assignments. This team must accomplish the goal so that I can be promoted.

I’m sure you have already figured out this plot line resembles Jesus’s challenge of choosing twelve disciples, each burdened by inadequate personalities and sinful habits.

(Of course, Jesus wouldn’t be fearful about accomplishing the mission, but you and I would). Jesus would never be able to find on the face of the earth any who were fully adequate for every task. And yet Jesus wasn’t concerned or pleading with his heavenly Father to create adequate people. When in prayer seeking the Father’s direction, Jesus was basically asking, “Which inadequate person?” And then he responded with understanding and help for the unqualified disciples and every other weak person he met on his human journey.

Oh, if only we would do the same.

Unfortunately, the inadequacies of others create a myriad of sinful responses in us. As we’ll find out in this chapter, there are underlying reasons for our lack of love and compassion which we may not initially identify. Understanding those issues and being inspired by Jesus’s example of godliness will be crucial for our journey toward God-honoring responses.

Defining inadequacy can help us quickly pinpoint exactly what is bothering us and contributing to our sinful anger. Inadequacy is defined as the state or characteristic of lacking the “quantity or quality required” (Dictionary.com). Synonyms include insufficiency, deficiency, scarcity, defective, failing, and lacking. Think about which of those bothers you the most—in yourself and others.

Jesus loved bringing his Father glory by empowering the weak. Every one of us should wonder why God would choose to interact in any way with imperfect people, much less because of our insufficiencies. But as he does, our joy and confidence grow as we see his mighty power empowering and transforming us. We become equipped for that which we initially were unqualified or ill-prepared.

God’s Word makes the assumption every member of the Body of Christ is imperfect and needs to be equipped: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;” (I Corinthians 1:27).

That’s it! I look forward to hearing from you! Please comment on the blog post. 

(PS I know many will wonder: “Do you explain how to have godly, righteous anger?” Yes I do.