i'm gonna be so mad!!

Lewis tells us about being "put out" today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

It reminds me of one time at work. My coworker told me that if a certain thing happened that day, she was "gonna be SO MAD!"

I thought about that, and I realized that was a bad plan. She was PLANNING to be angry. Instead of deciding what she would do if that happened, or how she would avoid it happening, or what she could do to get help in responding to the issue... her plan was to get "SO MAD!"

But that's what the man in Lewis's story does, too. He decides that this one place in town can make steaks the right way, and no one else can. And if he is prevented from getting his perfect steak, he's gonna be "SO MAD!"

It's funny how we set ourselves up for failure, isn't it? How we PLAN to respond poorly to a situation. You would think that we could learn from the example of loving, patient people, and come up with solutions to our problems that are healthy and productive. But even the smartest among us (and my coworker was a very smart, capable person) can get caught in these patterns of self-limiting, unhealthy mental behavior.

We can be freed from them, of course. It is for freedom that He has set us free. So let's choose that freedom each day, in all of our circumstances. And when we find ourselves setting ourselves up for failure... let's ask for help.

God, thanks for setting us free.