"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I have just recently gained deeper insight into the truth unfolding in an instance that occurred two years ago concerning anger. At that time I blew up one day during a department meeting; I literally exploded in anger expressed towards my department head and couldn’t speak to him for an entire week. At the same time I felt no regret or guilt about this anger, which somewhat puzzled me because I don’t like exploding in such a manner, especially in a professional situation.
I was calm about the incident to the point that when a colleague came in the next day to reprimand me for my behaviour, treating me as arrogant and unloving, I was able to say “ If expressing my anger was wrong, I would feel bad about the incident but I don’t feel bad, rather I feel that it had to happen, much as Jesus had to turn over the money changers’ tables in the temple.”
I still didn’t understand why but during the next week I prayed intensely trying to understand what was going on. My prayer brought a deep sense of oppression to the surface, oppression I had been feeling but repressing deep inside, not admitting it. At the end of the week, I not only began talking to my department head but knew that I needed to ask him to step down and let me take over the responsibilities of the job. He not only agreed to do so but was relieved that I was willing to take on the job. I had grown so much during that week and had moved out of the sense of oppression that had kept me from taking the job a year earlier when he had asked me to do so.
I didn’t take on the job immediately but took time to prepare mentally and metaphysically for the position. When I began some months later, it was clear to me that my only job was healing whatever needed healing in the department and around it. The months that have followed have been months of healing, healing of budgetal chaos, of broken relationships, of misperceptions in the workplace, of fear and doubts concerning the future, or of our ability to satisfactorily carry out our mission; and it has been a time of building bridges with other entities in the workplace. The work isn’t finished and won’t be for some time, but healing is taking place and my department is moving forward at a crucial time in our establishment.
With all this going on, I was still puzzled about what had sparked it off, that explosive moment of anger. Then this past Wednesday the readings of our testimony meeting were on anger. As I listened to the readings, my thought went back to this incident, and as I heard that so well-known and loved passage on page 293 of Science and Health, the pieces fell into place.
“There is no vapid fury of mortal mind … and this so-called mind is self-destroyed. The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, “The anger of the Lord.” In reality, they show the self-destruction of error and point to matter’s opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit.”
Ah yes, the anger was not real in and of itself but showed the self-destruction of the error being experienced as oppression and pointed to the strength of Spirit, leading to my confidence to take on a different role, not because I was the better person for the role but because Truth was unfolding in this way, supporting me, the department, and the institution, as I responded with confidence to the unfolding of my hidden talents. What a lesson I have learned, trusting divine unfoldment, trusting the ”strength and permanency of Spirit”.