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Sermon Illustrations: Anger

GRUMPY OLD MEN TOP OF HEART RISKS. Older men with the highest "anger" scores on a personality test face a three-times higher risk of heart disease than their peers. A study, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, concluded that the higher level of anger, the higher risk of heart attack or chest pain. The findings mesh with the conclusion of a study last year that episodes of anger were potent triggers of heart attacks. In that study researchers found that during the two hours after an episode of anger, an individual's relative risk of having a heart attack was 2.3 times higher than the risk for someone who had not been angry. Scientists speculate that anger raises the risk of heart attacks by releasing stress hormones into the bloodstream, increasing the heart's oxygen demand and increasing the stickiness of blood platelets. The Sunday Mail 3/11/96

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Anger Transference involves displaced anger. This is where you are originally angry with one person and you transfer it to someone else. For instance, a husband gets a blast from his boss, comes home and takes it out on his wife. She then takes it out on the kids, who kick the dog, who bites the cat … and so on right down the line. And too bad for you if you're right at the bottom of the food chain!

Have you ever been in a fight with someone and your words were pretty heated and the telephone rings? Notice how quickly you can manage your anger! You've got a lot more control over your anger than you think you do.

His father and grandfather were abusers. He was sexually, physically and mentally abused as a child, living in a brutal home. When he was about fifteen, his father was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He became a chronic drunk, drug taker, brawler, and feared for his own sanity. He grew up damaged and bitter. Was he angry? You bet. He's known as rock star Angry Anderson. Today, however, Anderson is channelling his anger into promoting positive causes.

When Julius Caesar was angry, he used to recite the Roman alphabet before responding. (Then he'd have them executed.)

It's easy to get uptight when we see people getting away with things they ought not to get away with. For instance, an aging movie star has been married for 20 or so years, dumps his wife for some gorgeous bombshell. Then there are people who light bushfires deliberately, seemingly oblivious to the pain they cause. In January 2002, there were hundreds of kilometres of bushfires in New South Wales, Australia. Many were deliberately lit, and many homes were lost. Or take for example a murderer who gets off on a technicality. Or when you're driving, don't you get just a little bit angry when you indicate to change lanes and someone zips up in the other lane and tries to cut you off? But God tells us not to fret or be angry. (Ps 37:7-10)

I read about a man who directs a large camping programme in the USA, and a lady came to him and related to him the sad story of her divorce. "How long ago was your divorce?" he asked. "Two years ago," she replied. "How many people have you talked to this week about your divorce?" "A few," she said. "How many is a few?" "Several," she replied. "How many is several?" "Six!" "You know, if I were to talk to six people a week for two years about my divorce, I think I would feel like you do. I don't think that I would heal either."

There is some evidence to suggest that if you assume a smile then your physiology follows and you become happier and less able to be angry.¹

1 De Bono, Edward Six Thinking Hats p 18