Proverbs 25:23 (NLT)
23 As surely as a north wind brings rain, so a gossiping
tongue causes anger!
Good can be brought about by anger towards those who
gossip. For if someone gossips to us and we reply with angry countenance then
maybe we will ward off future attacks by a gossiper. Anger towards someone is
itself not a sin. It is the hasty actions that can occur due to anger that can
lead to sin.
[On February 27, 2012, 17-year-old T. J. Lane from
Chardon, Ohio, burst into his school's cafeteria and started gunning down
classmates. Lane shot and killed three students, but if it wasn't for the
courage of Coach Frank Hall, many more students could have died that day.
The funny thing is that Hall doesn't consider himself to
be a courageous hero. The 6'1", 350-pound football coach admits that he
has plenty of fears. He hates confrontations; he's afraid of heights, roller
coasters, and scary movies; and he jumps through the ceiling when his kids
sneak up on him. On one level, Coach Hall is more of a teddy bear than a
fighter. Hall summarizes his coaching code in two sentences: "Every kid is
someone's pride and joy, or wants to be someone's pride and joy …. I keep
thinking, How would I want my kid to be treated?—and then I treat them that
way."
But Frank Hall believes that there's one word that
defines his life calling—protector. So as the shots rang out on that February
morning in the Chardon High School cafeteria Frank Hall knew what he had to do.
Hall, a follower of Christ who felt the hand of God through the ordeal,
responded with courage in the face of danger. As students cringed under desks,
Hall charged at the gunman, his voice booming, "Stop! Stop!" T.J.
Lane, the 17-year-old shooter, was thrown off-guard by Hall's charge. Lane shot
and missed as Hall dove behind a soda machine.
When Jen Sprinzl, a 51-year-old secretary, rushed out of
the office to follow the bangs, Lane pointed his gun in her face. Hall had four
adopted sons at home—two African-American, two bi-racial—that he didn't want to
leave fatherless, but once again he rose up and bellowed, "NO!" Then
he charged at Lane, who wheeled and started running. Police finally found Lane
on a wooded road, shivering and wearing a t-shirt with the word KILLER on it.
When they asked him why he'd run away, he said, "Because Coach Hall was
chasing me."
In a later interview, Hall said, "I know, it sounds
crazy, but in all honesty, I really didn't think about anything … I just
reacted …. As a society, we cannot lose our outrage when these kinds of
tragedies happen. We can't just get to the point where we accept these kinds of
things as just part of our lives, now. We have to make sure we, as a people,
don't accept it … we can't!" [Matt Woodley, managing editor,
PreachingToday.com; source: Gary Smith, "A Coach's Courage," Sports
Illustrated (6-24-13)]]
Coach Hall was a gentle man, but anger and outrage
motivated him to take the proper action to save others. He handled anger in a
proper way, not causing others to be injured, but others to be saved. God has anger
towards sin because He sees how it destroys our lives. It is why God put a plan
of salvation in place to save us from sin.
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