Dealing with agitation
There are so many triggers that lead to me being agitated.
I hate to admit that. I’d like to be better at managing it. What I have gotten better at is keeping the surface-level calm, but the agitation still stirs in my heart. I’m not certain that’s real progress, though.
Sometimes, my agitation is my own fault. If I’m running late, I always seem to find the lane with the slowest driver…which, of course, means I’ll hit all the red lights along my path, too. Or I could get pulled into what I thought would be a short conversation that quickly turns into a deeper discussion than I wanted to budget my time for. A particularly agitating situation for me is when I’m depending on someone – especially if I’ve paid this person to do a job – and they aren’t meeting the standard we had agreed to.
Do any of these situations sound familiar?
The American Hertitage Dictionary has this description as a part of its definition of agitation:
A stirring up or arousing; disturbance of tranquility; disturbance of mind which shows itself by physical excitement
That sounds about right. I may begin with feeling frustration, but if I progress to agitation, there’s probably some physical tell to go along with the shift in my mood. I’ve suddenly lost my poker face. The chances of me lashing out before thinking it through have definitely gone up.
One sure-fire way to get me agitated is external to me. I despise people taking advantage of others or taking advantage of “the system”. We all need to make a living, but we don’t have to price-gouge. I am 100% in support of entrepreneurs (there are several in my family), but I’m shocked and agitated when people create fake businesses, like daycares or hospice centers, only to get paid out by government programs. Worse yet, it appears that some people just take advantage of others simply “because they can”…and that agitates me to no end.
And to fix situations like these, we may even convince ourselves that we gotta meet them on their level. We justify defrauding them just like they defrauded others. We daydream of pulling it off and yelling, “See? Do you like how that feels?”
David recognized the same feelings of agitation we have, but his advice runs counter to our knee-jerk reaction:
Psalm 37:1-9
Do not be agitated by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong.
For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.
Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely.
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act,
making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.
Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him;
do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way,
by the person who carries out evil plans.
Refrain from anger and give up your rage;
do not be agitated – it can only bring harm.
For evildoers will be destroyed,
but those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land.
My first thought when reading through is “That sounds nice David, but not very practical. Me ‘doing good’ doesn’t stop them from ‘doing bad’ to others. I still see them running around taking advantage of people.”
However, this line of thinking misses what God says to do first when we’re agitated by evildoers. “Do what is good” comes second. “Trust in the Lord” comes first. Too often, I expect that I can wield “my good” to bully or shame the other person into doing what I think they should. In those cases, I haven’t included God in the equation. I’m expecting my own righteousness to prevail.
Instead, God is telling us that we aren’t the cure for evil – He is. When we trust Him, He will act. But His acts will come on His timing, not ours.
Does this mean we are to be a doormat and simply let bad people be bad? No, I don’t think so. Part of doing what is good is advocating for and protecting others. But we do so with a humble attitude that God’s correction is better than us lashing out of our agitation.
Keep Pressing,
Ken