“He who is slow to anger has great understanding and profits from self-control. But he who is quick tempered exposes and exalts his foolishness for all to see.” (Probers 14:29 AMP)
“Hot tempers start fights; a calm, cool spirit keeps the peace.” (Proverbs 15:18 MSG)
“The slap heard round the world.” It’s been a few weeks now since Oscar night landed Will Smith on everyone’s radar and not in a good way. I’m pretty sure everyone knows by now what happened, but for some reason if you don’t, Chris Rock made a tasteless joke that night about Smith’s wife, Jada Pickett, and her lack of hair, telling her he was looking forward to seeing her in “G.I. Jane 2”. At first Smith laughed it off, but, after seeing his wife react negatively to the joke due to her having a skin condition called Alopecia that causes one’s hair to fall out prematurely, he quickly ran up on stage and slapped Rock in front of the live audience and about 15 million viewers that included me. He then returned to his seat and verbally swore at Rock twice saying to keep his wife out of Rock’s mouth. Since then, Smith has resigned from the Academy and became banned from attending any Oscar event for the next 10 years. While I’m very sad over Will Smith’s demise due to his Oscar night’s physical assault and expletives, the spiritual lesson continues to remain very clear to me when it comes to uncontrolled anger.
Having personally suffered the consequences in life from many acts of uncontrolled anger as well, especially during my alcohol and drug addiction days, I came to realize the cause was always allowing my ego to be more in control than God. It was abundantly clear that Smith was allowing his ego to do the talking on Oscar night, rather than God, which I found surprising when Smith talked later that night about his devotion and gratitude to God during his Best Actor acceptance speech.
Nevertheless, there are countless days I feel people make me angry. The most recent was a client lashing out at me during one of my alcohol and drug presentations, shouting obscenities my way in front of 50 others. How I handled it was simply talking in a calm and collected voice, one I feel came from my Spirit, that simply showed the individual he was loved even in his anger and judgments of me. In the past, how I would have reacted to it would have been far less humble, probably shouting expletives in defense.
Thankfully, I see now that the more I humble myself before God and not let my ego control my actions, the more I’m able to remain at peace and refrain from anger when attacks come my way. I wished Smith had allowed God to remain more in charge on Oscar night than his ego, because in the end, the cost of his uncontrolled anger will have far worse ramifications on both his personal life and career than if he had simply just prayed to God for help…
Dear God, I know how easy it is to become angry in this world and lash out, especially when we feel unfairly attacked. May you always help me to control my tongue and my actions and lead me more to acts of peace and love, than letting my ego be in control.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
