Road Rage is everywhere and it’s not just about ‘the other guy’. All sorts of things can push our ‘hot buttons’. What do you think? Will the motorcycle buying public go for Harleys made in Brazil, India, and Thailand? What will be the reception for the new training Harleys imported from China? Has Harley gone ‘woke’? These and many other questions can stir up feelings of anger, bewilderment, even rage among the faithful.
It is not just limited to those of us who love our two-wheeled conveyances. This an all-too-common feature of modern life. There’s disorder on the highways, in the court rooms, the classrooms, and just about wherever humans get together. Why is this?
Believe it or not, James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, lived in a world much like ours, except without traction control. He wrote in his cryptic short letter to First Century churches the following: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” James 3:16.
People then and now are still people. News Flash: human hearts are full of ‘envy and selfish ambition’. We all know this tragic reality that even churches can be wracked with disorder and every evil practice. Throughout his letter, he set forth two fundamental ways of living: by what comes naturally or by faith. James chronicled that envy, and selfish ambition produces very predictable results. Envy is an absolutely fundamental human response, starting just outside the baby stroller and continuing through the boardrooms of the corporate world. Right after learning “momma” and “dada”, every little one learns “no” and “mine” as the scramble for the unshared toy erupts into a screeching match and eventual cries of “that’s not fair!” Time passes, and the acquisitive urges of “envy and selfish ambition” erupt onto the world state, plunging generations into wars, privations, terror attacks, piracy and hatred. Why are people “seething seas of simmering savagery”? Because of envy and selfish ambition.
The New Testament word James used could also be translated ‘boiling’. When a boiling pot is jostled or upset, the rage splatters all over those closest to it. But there is an alternative way of life that comes from God, the ‘giver of every good and perfect gift.’ “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; the peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” – James 3:17-18
Enough said! So, here’s a little encouragement from just 700 years ago:
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love; where there is injury, your pardon, Lord; and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
O Master, grant that I may never seen so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.
~ St. Francis of Assisi
Off the Main Highway, James, the half-brother of Jesus, had another brother, the writer of a New Testament postcard, Jude. They both wrote following the theme of how faith works its way into a believer and how it works its way out. By comparison, Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians followed the theme of how hope works its way in and out, while I, II, and III John tell of how love works its way in and out. These three, faith, hope and love, are very foundation of living as a Christ-following biker.
