The real question is, why NOT try to pop popcorn with a torch!?! Didn’t know if it would work or not, but we put some oil in a cast-iron skillet, fired up the cooking torch (I held it once it was lit!), and waited…and waited! The heat built and built until POP! Something had to happen eventually; I just hoped it would be something good!
Some things take a lot of heat before they pop. Is that true of you when you get angry? Unfortunately, it’s not always true for me. I love the Bible word “longsuffering,” but I think I’ve been missing the point. It’s easy to pride ourselves on our self control and taking longer and longer to blow up in anger, but we’ve also got to make sure we do good instead of blowing up in anger at all. I want to be longsuffering the way God is according to verses like 1 Peter 3:20: “when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” And 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God is just and will make everything right at just the right time, but when He puts up with stuff for a long time, He uses that time to give people more and more chances to get right before judgment comes. Instead of building anger up to do something wrong, God uses the longsuffering times to give people a chance to get right.
Being longsuffering Is really important, and I hope it’ll mean extra time to prepare for the right response, not extra time to let our selfish anger build up more and more.
Instead of letting things boil up inside us, we need an outlet, an escape. Take a break, grab a snack, go for a run, check in with a friend, and why not also pray and think about a verse or two of Scripture while we’re at it?
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