Honk! honk!
(Foul languages)
(Tempers flare)
(Emotions Run Wild)
(RAGE!!!) ------ Kill! Kill!

Rage can kill. Rage is uncontrolled anger which explodes into hatred, and anger kicks in when someone crosses our paths and provokes us. If you don't get provoked driving in Penang or big cities in Malaysia, I salute you.

Anger is a natural response to sin. God gets angry as well but unlike us, He is "slow to anger, abounding in love and willing to forgive."

Inconsiderate and selfish driving is, to me, a clear indication of a person's morality. If you need convincing, come to Penang and drive daily for at least a few months.

What pisses me off is not the acts but the fact that I am surrounded by so many people who... are both self center and lost. These lost souls feel that their time is more precious than others (and that's why they will cut from all illegal directions/lanes); that they deserve a clear view of the road ahead (and they blind others with their Super Xenon headlights using high beam); etc. etc... the list can be long.

OFTEN I get angry pretty fast when I see inconsiderate drivers or riders - especially those in my way or causing me to slam on my brakes or swerve my car or my bike. So un-Christ-like of me.

SOMETIMES when these inconsiderate or moronic road bullies cross my path or forces me out of my lane, I confess that murderous intentions sometimes find its way into my mind - especially when I am rushing! Whoooaa! Well, the heart is deceitful above all things.. and if you have had impression that I was holy and all goody-2-shoes, I am not.

But ALWAYS, I know I am wrong to react the way I did. PSALM 4:4 says "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent." And I am ALWAYS in need of repentance when I do that.

I am human, and I am messed up. If I was a goodie, I wouldn't need God, and I am sure the Bible is not wrong when God says that even our holiness is filthy rags to Him.

Anyway, I am not offering any lesson to handle road rage. But I am telling a story concerning road rage that God involved me. An experience that will help me to cope with my personal anger.

I challenged my wife to make a decision on where to have our breakfast this morning (yes, woman can be indecisive and you can certainly be spoilt for choices to have breakfast in Penang :-)) Surprisingly, she was quite fast to said where she wanted to eat.

On the way to Rifle Range, coming close to the new Firehouse in Paya Terubong, my wife and I heard a noise coming from one of the tyres. It sounded like a nail or an object caught in the tyre. So I stopped my car next to the curb and went down to inspect all 4 tyres. I spent about 10 minutes inching my hand thru the threads trying to find, perhaps, a gold pin instead of a nail. Wasn't that lucky.

Before I could find the source of the noise...

Suddenly a commotion started as soon as a car screeched to a stop right about 30 feet in front of me. A bike stopped next to it. A road rage was about to explode.

Lots of foul "hokkien" words were exchanged besides legal perspectives of traffic rules.

The man came out from his car. And I started in their direction, pacing quickly, hoping to do something, but not really knowing what I would do if they started to engage in a bloodbath. Both seems competent - I have no doubt about that when I came close to them.

I always thought I will get into a fight by defending the person who has been wronged or being bashed like a ragged doll. Never knew if the courage was still with me. But those carnally heroic thoughts were not with me that morning. I felt very strongly that God was in charge. And I was thinking that should a fight broke off, I was going to shout to Him for help. Either He gives me some super powers or He causes the 2 men to stop fighting. Both ways work for me. Nevertheless, I didn't know who had been wronged.

God arranged for me to stop at the right place and at the right time. To the skeptic, this is called coincident. But let me say that as I placed my arms around the 2 men, I knew that God was placing me where He had wanted me that very morning. They were still challenging each other and cursing when my arms went around them but I was speaking as gently as I could to soften their raging tempers. And God put simple words of wisdom in my mouth that prevented the 2 men from perhaps "killing" each other.

The last few words that rang so vividly in my ears from all the cursing were these: "!@#@$...wah hor lu chiak cheng chee....!@#$" ("....I will make you eat a bullet...") EEEUUUU... my God... and it sounded with so much conviction - like the guy really have a gun or knows someone who would do the job for him.

Anyway, when I reflected back on those 10+ steps of faith that resulted in diffusing a road rage, I am so thankful to God for His mercy on the 2 men that could have completely changed the course of their day or even their lives for the worse had God not intervened.

And I am thankful that He used me. :-)

My wife was afraid that I could have been beaten up... but I like to think that she would have come to my rescue with at least an umbrella in her hand.

So we resumed our journey to Rifle Range without any more sounds coming from the tyre - and no, I didn't find a single object sticking to my tyre. (Yes, I guess another coincident-lah)

It was Hokkien Mee and Char Koay Teow as recommended by a friend whom we bumped into. Beh Pai Chiak-lah!

Meditate on this verse:

Ephesians 4:26
"In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry"