Good v Bad; Anger v Moving On

As I’ve been thinking about 2021 and character, I think about the film Southpaw. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character was a brilliant boxer who held the world heavyweight title, but in all his brilliance he had a problem with rage and this was his downfall. He lost it all and was literally brought down, to be raised up again. If you bear with me, I’m bringing up two topics: good v bad and anger v. moving on.

If we are to make it through 2021 and through life, we should never get bothered by people to the extent that we lose what we have. I’m not saying we won’t get hurt or angered by people, we will, we have in the past- we are human. But as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” Feeling angry or any emotion is not a sin, but as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:6: “in your anger do not sin.” When we act out with rage, there’s a problem and that’s the time to step back and look internally and ask ourselves, “why does thing, this person have me enraged?”

We’ve decided since preschool that some people are good and some people are bad. We’ve known since our earliest years of life that there are people we like and don’t like, prefer and not prefer. We’ve known since we were able to grasp the concept of movies that there are good guys and bad guys.

But, I’d argue that there are no good people or bad people, although we’d all like to think that we’re good and “they” are bad- because we could never do anything bad. But we are all sinners and we have all done some pretty unfavorable things that make people not like us, not prefer us, and that we have at one time or another been a “bad” person to. But also, we have done favorable things that make people like us, prefer us and that we have at one time or another been a “good” person to. We are oscillating between this idea of being a good and bad person, but let me remind us, it’s one Person that redeems us from our “badness.” More on this Person in a second…

The truth is, if an atmosphere is pleasant, most people are going to be good- act good, be nice, and be pleasant. But, if an atmosphere is unpleasant, people will turn nasty. If you expose sin, corruption, speak up against injustice, and confront people of things they will most likely act unpleasant and nasty because they don’t want to be expose or to change. There are joyful people and there are miserable people. When we start thinking we are good, it brings entitlement and perhaps arrogance where we get to judge others and often fail to see the speck in our own eyes (Matthew 7:3). When we become the deciders of goodness as flawed humans, we are losing sight of the One who is the ultimate judge to decide this.

Jesus said in Mark 10:18, "No one is good--except God alone.” Our Heavenly Papa is the only good One, and Jesus is that “one Person,” Who redeems us from our “badness” by what He did on the cross. You see, “Jesus came for the oppressor and the oppressed, for Pharaoh and for the Israelite,” said Liam Thatcher. We are both at times in life the oppressor [Pharaoh] and other times the oppressed [the Israelite]. Both need the goodness of God and His redeeming Son to free us from our sinful ways.

We can decide how we react to situations in life, and get to a point that no matter what happens we will react calmly and sensibly. This idea that someone can make us enraged or depressed are privileges that we give to ourselves. “If somebody else can decide what can happen within you, isn’t this the ultimate slavery? If someone else can decide what happens within you, aren’t you enslaved?” said Sadhguru. 

Gyllenhaal’s character in Southpaw allowed anger in and decided to let rage win when a smart mouth provoked him in a public place, which led to his wife getting shot in that moment of provocation-- which led to him losing his home, which led to him losing his boxing title, which led to him becoming inebriated while driving, which led the courts taking his daughter- all because he had an anger problem. (Sorry I ruined the film for you but it’s still worth watching).

Only God is good and we are flawed humans saved by God’s grace, and we get to decide how much we let another person or situation affect us this year, so let us decide wisely and weigh the costs of our choices.

Happy Friday and with love! God bless you and go bless someone else this weekend!