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Key Bible Verse: Anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). Bonus Reading: James 1:19-20

Flying in from a business trip, I found the line to pay for parking very slow, which rekindled my frustrations from the week just past. So when I heard the cashier tell the driver ahead of me she'd have to call in for approval of the check, I lost it. Just then a new lane opened, so I threw the car into reverse and gunned it to get over there. But I'd cut the wheel too sharply, and rebounded off the abutment in front of the cashier, who was now staring wide-eyed at me and the front of my car.

I manhandled the car to the other lane, paid, and sped off. But the steering turned sluggish, so I moved to the right to let a silver van pass and saw in its reflection that my front bumper was folded up almost completely underneath my car. Madder yet, I swerved over, stopped on the shoulder and wrenched off the bumper. Wedging it into the back seat, I raced home with a skeletal grille and dangling wires sparking on the asphalt.

At home, as I dumped the bumper in the backyard, I caught my wife's eye through the kitchen window. Without a trace of a surprise, she shook her head and went back to cooking dinner.

—J. Walker Smith in Life Is Not Work; Work Is Not Life

My Response: A time when I saw an image of myself that wasn't pretty was …

Thought to Apply: Men, for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.
—Margaret Fuller (journalist, 19th century)

Adapted from: Life Is Not Work; Work Is Not Life (Wildcat Canyon, 2001) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, show me how to be a first-rate worker without being consumed by my work.

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