“I have the right to be angry!”

       Justified anger. Righteous indignation. When angry, outraged, indignant, upset or offended, who pays the price? We do. Sure, we may vent at the source of our displeasure, but our face becomes red, our heart beats faster, our blood pressure rises, our serenity is lost, our peace of mind replaced with turmoil. Even if we get the chance to give them “a piece of our mind” what was actually accomplished? Then there are those occasions when the object of our ire is beyond our reach, speeding away down the road, on the other side of the TV screen or radio speaker or try as we might we just cannot get through the maze of voice mailboxes to get to a real person and ranting e-mails are wholly unsatisfying. There are few laws that are truly immutable, here is one: we reap as we sow.

Immutable: adj

Unchanging or unchangeable: not changing or not able to be changed (Encarta)

    We cannot get angry enough to instill peace, in ourselves or anyone else. No one has ever been moved in a positive way when anger is the sole motivation. No world leader has ever changed their mind because we yelled at the TV.

     Does this mean we should go through life with a Mona Lisa smile cemented on our face, never taking a stand or pointing out mistakes, having no opinion on anything, floating along on some form of spiritual (or actual) valium? Of course not, Living on the Spiritual Basis is not about disconnecting from life, floating above it all, but connecting in a new and profound ways, for we are living on a new basis, the basis of trusting and relying on God.

     Avoid the distraction of being offended. There is always something to be upset or offended by, from the inconsiderate driver/cell phone user to world leaders acting badly, but our peace, serenity, must never be the victim. When we allow the world to get the better of us, we suffer the pain we try to inflict on others. We drink the poison of resentment and discontent, we become upset and irritable, we close ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit and not only do we suffer, but those closest to us do as well. The next time the thought “I have the right to be angry” crosses your mind ask yourself this: Who gave you this right? Bottoms up.