Just this morning, I saw on the news of another case of “road rage.” A twenty-eight-year old man got angry with how the vehicle driven by an eighteen-year old girl was merging with his truck into traffic. So he pulled out his hand gun and promptly shot her in the head, evidently killing her instantly. He later turned himself in.
We marvel at such a brutal and senseless act. What would prompt someone to do such a thing? You can be quite sure this had nothing to do with the girl. Two things came to mind about this tragedy drawn from my years of observing human behavior. The first possibility was that this man had developed an attitude of arrogance. He saw himself as better than others, more important than anyone else, and had very little concern for others. So when he got behind the wheel, he fancied himself as the best driver on the road and that his reason for being on the road was more important than anybody else’s reason for being on the road - so look out!
The other thought was that this man had issues or some singular problem which had gone unresolved in his life. He was frustrated, upset, seething on the inside and just ready to “boil over.” So when this other vehicle invaded his space - look out!
The Holy Spirit deals with both of these human weaknesses. Pride is a cesspool in the heart which infects our actions toward others. Unresolved anger can explode at any time to give the devil opportunity to work harm through us and to us. Beware of these!
Most of us would never think of doing what this man did. O, yes, the thought might flicker in our minds for a micro second, but we would never follow through. That is, we would never follow through by pulling a gun and shooting someone, but sometimes we do “shoot” at people to hurt them - don’t we? Things such as nasty looks, sharp words, deep noticeable sighs, leaving the room in a huff, turning our back, etc. are all “bullets” in our gun to hurt someone. We have all fired those rounds, haven’t we? Beware!