Well, sort of : )

The real title was a little too long!  Today’s goal is to be mad only about the things that God gets mad about — to care about only what God cares about.

This goal was a gift from the Lord.  Truly.

I live in the Washington, DC area, and it seems like whenever we talk about anger or irritation, we use traffic examples.  It seems like it should get a bit trite, but it’s amazing how much it affects our world!

So this morning I was headed to the gym.  It’s 5am - there are pretty much no other cars on the road.  Yet somehow, I managed to hit all 9 stoplights in the (normally) 10 minute drive from my house to the gym.  Every single one of them was red!  Crazy.

So I started to get a little annoyed.

You see, I grew up in a small town.  It was big news when I came back to visit during college, and the town had gotten a new stoplight.  Somehow I’ve still got a lot of my small town roots in me.  You’d think after living in DC for 11 years I’d start to get used to stoplights!  But with no other cars on the road at 5am when I hit yet another red light, I started to get really irritated.

Then I thought about what the Lord had brought to mind this morning: ”Get mad about only what I get mad about.”  That was my goal for the day.  I still had sleep in my eyes, and I was already busting my goal.  (Yes, a good reminder I am a sinner in need of a Savior!)

So the Lord graciously brought His morning’s challenge to mind… and I gotta tell you, it was such a gift.  I sat there thinking — which I had plenty of time to do at all the red lights : ) — is this something the Lord gets mad about?

Oh, it was lovely.  It was like the ucky weight of frustration about to turn into anger lifted, and I smiled.  God’s not mad about red lights.  And neither will I be.