Daily Lesson for January 12, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 through 7:

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced* a man with the help of the Lord.’ 2Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’

"Why are you angry?"

This is an important and profound question for our self-reflection.

We say someone or something makes us angry. But the truth is the anger is already inside us. Others may bring it out, but the anger was already there.

The Lord could see the anger in Cain. He must have been seething when his gift was rejected. But even before that, the anger was perhaps already there. Maybe that is why his gift was rejected in the first place.

Why was he angry? Cain would have done well to sit with this question and to consider it. What was it about him that allowed such jealousy and hatred to take root ? What was it about him that was the source of such hatred? As is said in the 12 Step Tradition, what was "the exact nature of his wrongs"?

We all have anger inside us. We all have jealousy and bitter resentment. It is good and necessary that we sit with these feelings for a time -- examine and try and to know them.

Why are we angry? What really is the matter -- not with him or with her or with them, but with me?

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.