Y Team Skills for Overcoming Anger (2.0)

The “Y” Team is a team, like a football team, basketball team, baseball team, etc. Each of those team’s identities define the primary focus of the game – a ball. In a football game, the focus is always on the football and how the players execute their particular skills in relationship to it. For The “Y” Team, “righteousness” is like the ball. At the last practice – click here if you missed it -- we learned about the importance of doing “acts of righteousness.” Some of the acts of righteousness Yeshua described in that lesson are these:

(1) giving hungry people food

(2) giving thirsty people drink

(3) giving strangers a place to stay

(4) giving people in need of clothing clothes

(5) visiting people who were sick

(7) going to see people who were in prison

Developing your “Y” Team skills requires practice. Just like in any sport, you will probably blow it a number of times, but as you practice you will improve. I can assure you of one fact -- no one on the team is perfect. Why? We are all human. Contrary to the old saying – practice makes perfect – the reality is that practice progressively increases our ability to execute skills more successfully.

Today’s practice is about skills for successfully overcoming anger. Why is it important for us to control anger, instead of letting anger control us? Cain’s inability to successfully overcome anger led to the following actions: the murder of his brother, future descendants that engaged in recreational murder and ultimately to God’s decision to use the Great Flood to destroy all humans – with the exception of Noah, the first man called “righteous.” Noah did acts of righteousness and that saved him and his family. The moral of Cain’s story is something that must be remembered. One person’s inability to control anger may lead to things he or she could never have imagined, from the murder of a relative to the destruction of an entire population.

Today’s practice is based on Yeshua’s lesson found in Matthew 5:21-26. Since this is a practice session and not a Bible study, I will convert terms from Yeshua’s time period and culture into the language of our culture to make them more understandable and applicable.  

Picture yourself sitting in the group Yeshua was teachings, when he suddenly turned directly to you, points his finger at you and says:

“You have heard what our ancestors said:

`You shall not murder and everyone that murders shall be tried in court!’

`But _____________ (insert your name),

I am telling you that everyone that becomes angry with his brother

should be tried in the same court as murderers!’”

What would be the first thought to pop into your mind? For me it would probably be the last time I was angry! I believe this technique reveals a side of Yeshua few people ever consider – his sense of humor! We would probably have found ourselves staring dumbfounded into eyes that would have been smiling back at us -- “Got’cha!”  

He knew everyone listening to him had been angry. He didn’t want angry person tried in local courts. He knew what he said would grab everyone’s attention, so after he had it he laid out his Game Plan for Successfully Overcoming Anger.

Plan A

“Anyone that says to a brother, out of anger,

`You are useless, empty and of no value!’,

should be tried in the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court!”

(1) Know when you are becoming angry.

(2) Remember that the person you are angry with is made in the image of God, just like you! In God’s eyes, you are both valuable – even when you are not doing things that reveal His image to others through your actions.

(3) Guard your mind from thinking the other person useless, empty or of no value.

(4) Guard your mouth from saying those things.

(5) Treat the person with the respect the God’s image deserves, even if the other person isn’t reflecting God’s image through his or her actions.

(6) Reveal God’s image through your words and actions.

(7) If you blow it and say what you were instructed not to say, go to Plan B.

Plan B

“But anyone who says out of anger,

‘You fool!’

will be in danger of being tried in the court of God!”

(Yeshua’s understanding of the meaning of the term “fool” is from Psalm 14:1.)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They behave corruptly and their deeds are abominable.

There is no one doing TOV.

(1) Know that calling someone a “fool” means:

A. accusing someone of denying the existence of God in their heart

B. accusing someone of behaving corruptly

C. accusing someone of do things that are abominable

D. accusing someone of doing things that do not measure up to God’s TOV Standard.

(2) Know God’s TOV Standard. (We will cover information below in much more detail in future practices.)

A. actions that protect lives

B. actions that preserve lives

C. actions that make lives more functional

D. actions that increase the quality of lives

(3) Remember that acts of righteousness measure up to God’s TOV Standard.

(4) Remember that doing acts that measure up to God’s TOV Standard brings the creation closer to His vision of what the Creation should be.

(5) Remember that doing acts that measure up to God’s TOV Standard reveals His image to the world through your actions.

(6) Remember that only God has the capacity to identify a fool and you are not Him.

(7) Be acutely aware of the potential consequences of failing to execute Plan B successfully – remember what happened to Cain.

Things you can do to practice these skills.

(1) Write them down on paper. Writing engages many neurons in your brain and that strengthens your self-conscious mind’s ability to remember them.

(2) Read them out loud one time each day for 21 days. This strengthens your subconscious mind’s ability to recall them, as well as create confirmation circles to support them.

(3) Create a trigger phrase to use when you become aware that you are feeling angry – Game Time!, Plan A!, or something else that works for you.

Work this into your practice times and send me some feedback about what happens when you get a chance to use them in the real game of life. Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcomed from Y Team Members!  

Shalom,

Jim

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Version 2.0 (Revised 10/22/17)