We like to think so. We like to think we have the same motivation as Jesus who flipped over tables and cursed fig trees. But more times than not, we are angry not for righteous reasons, but because we had a certain plan about how a situation should unfold, and someone or something messed with that plan.

We are angry because we have been dethroned in a given situation.

I wonder if it might be profitable to, when anger creeps up from our hearts, to take a moment of reflection. To trace that anger back down to its source. To not just be angry, but to ask ourselves, “Why is this firing me up so much?” I wonder what we might find if we did that?

My hunch is, more times than not, we’d find ourselves crying over the shredded paper crown we had constructed for ourselves.