Did you know the one who acts out of anger is the loser?  

There is a fable about a young lion and a mountain goat who went to the same watering hole to quench their thirst. Arriving at the same time, they fell into a heated argument about who would be the first to drink. Soon, they became enraged.  

Both were determined to resist each other to the death. Ceasing their strife to catch their breath for a moment, they looked up and noticed a flock of vultures hovering overhead, waiting for the loser to fall.  

Their quarrel was quickly resolved. 

Many years ago, I was a struggling young preacher, and my income was quite small. During this time, our television had stopped working. Trying to save money, I decided I could fix it myself.  

I diagnosed the problem to be the UHF tuner. Why I came to that conclusion, I do not know.  

I went to a TV repair shop and bought a new tuner. I was thinking that anyone with even a small amount of common sense should be able to remove a tuner and replace it with a new one. All I had to do was mark the wires on the old tuner and solder them back at the same location on the new tuner.  

This is exactly what I did – or so I thought.  

Having finished, I was ready for the moment of truth. I turned on the television, and there was nothing! I became a little angry.  

So, I thought I had put two of the wires in the wrong place. I changed them around.  

When I turned the television on this time, there were some sparks that came from the back of it. I became even more angry.  

In my anger, I just started changing wires around everywhere.  

I turned the television on for the third time. You would not believe the sparks that shot out of that television! As my wife grabbed our dog and ran out the door, the television exploded!  

On that day, I learned the high cost of anger. 

What do you do when you are angry? Someone has said, “Every time we get angry, we drive a nail into our own coffin.” Well, it certainly happened to me. Didn’t Paul say, “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” (Ephesians 4:26)? 

It is said that a rattlesnake, if cornered, will sometimes become so angry that it will bite itself. My friends, so it is with us. We think we are harming others, when in reality, we suffer the most.  

Anger has a way of biting back!