Brad,

Excellent examples.  I'll add another personal one.  My 20 year old son
wasn't living for the Lord and I knew it based upon the way he started
talking to his mom and dad.  He had a good job, as he does now, and made
good money for not going to college.  Sandy and I were talking to him one
night due to a lie we caught him in and his behavior.  He walked out on me
as I was talking.  I'm standing in the dining room and he, knowing if he
went quietly, walked out of the dining room, through the kitchen, and down
the basement steps.  I realized I was talking to nobody when I heard his
door close downstairs.  My anger was already engaged but now it shot off the
scale.  Fortunately, I was wearing my cowboy boots instead of my moccasins.
I ran down the stairs, and kicked the damn door down.  I said it that way to
show just how mad I really was.  It was a hollow core door.  I would have
not kicked it if I would have known it was solid core.  I'm not stupid.  I
punched a hole through the door and ripped half the door off and out of its
frame.  I told my son, at top volume, which is pretty high for a Baptist
preaching pulpit pounder, that if he ever did that again, walk out on his
blind father...  Bingo.  As I said, I was already angery about his behavior
and coming home late and lying and several other things I wondered about in
my heart.  I didn't kick the door down because of what he did, even walking
out on me.  I kicked his door in because I was blind.  What he did was
remind me just how blind I was and of course we all know just how stupid
blind people are.  Thank you Satan.  It's you I should have kicked that
night and not my door.  The dumb door still doesn't hang in the frame right
to this day even though we replaced the door itself.  Would my son have
walked out on me if I could see?  Not likely.  My blindness still hurts in
places but I let Jesus heal them every time it gets triggered and the pain
rushes to the surface of my emotions.  You know something?  I felt better
after kicking the door half off its hinges and thus was fooled for years
into thinking it was my son's behavior I was mad about and now I know it
wasn't him at all.  I was mad at my blindness, myself for being blind, and
especially at God for letting me go blind.  I'd be 50 years old before I was
able to hear the Lord explain it to me, only to discover, of course, Jesus
was never mad at me although I had been mad at him for the majority of my
life.  Try and tell me Jesus doesn't know what's going on.  We be His plan.

Phil.