dANGERous with a purpose

This week we will talk about Anger in the final week of our series dANGERous.  Please don't miss it.  One of the things we aren't going to get to talk about as much as I would have like is the positive power of anger.  So I'll do that some here. 

 

Things change. But whether they change for the better or not depends on what people do. It's my opinion that most often it's angry people that create change. People who are comfortable, satisfied, or more worried about "what might happen" don’t change much.  

 

Now I'm not saying that we need to make people angry because too often people get angry and just destroy things.  But I want to give you things than only change once someone get's angry.

1. There’s a wrong that must be righted, now. A serious wrong; a principle something is violated that leaves a huge hole in the way life should be done.
2. The wrong is in the circle of my influence. Outside my circle of influence (my friends, my family, those I work with, etc.) there I can pray about things that need change, I can look for ways to cooperate with others who are working for that change but I can't do much else. It's in my circle of my influence where I can make a positive change. When there is a wrong that has to be righted in my circle of your influence, I can make a difference. 
3.   When the feeling of “Someone ought to do something” becomes, “I must do something.” 
4. When the passion becomes a vision. When a picture of things not as they are, but of how they could be if something happened comes - now we have a vision.
5. First steps are taken. This is the hardest thing to do; to take initiative, to take first steps when the first steps seem to be so short of the change you want to see. But they are always small, usually done alone by angry people with a vision.
6. Results are small, but promising.  We want to make small input and have big output. That simply doesn’t happen. First results are small, but promising leading in the right direction.
7. Eventually others see the need for the change.  Even small results that are toward a needed change attract more support.   With more support, there can be larger steps taken and result increase.

 

But it all starts with one person seeing something that's off and it makes them angry.   And they don't handle their anger in the wrong way - they move for change.    The best example in my life time of this kind of thing is the civil rights movement in this country.