Devotion for the Second Week of September

Its an old story, told by many sports commentators over the years. I do not know if it is true, but it’s a great story that Billy Martin included in his book.

Billy Martin was invited to join Mickey Mantle to do some hunting down on a friends ranch in Texas. Mantle told Martin that all he had to do was to drop by his friends house to let him know he was going to be on the ranch hunting and was always given permission to hunt. When they got there, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he went in and cleared things with his friend. Permission was quickly granted for them to hunt, but the owner asked Mickey to do him a favor. He had a mule in the barn who had gone blind, but he did not have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him. Mickey agreed. On the way back to the car a plan formed in Mantle's mind.

When Mickey got to the car, he pretended to be angry. He shouted and slammed the car door shut. Billy asked him what was wrong. Mickey replied that the owner would not let them hunt there any more. "I am so mad at that guy that I am going out to that barn and shoot one of his mules," said Mantle. He drove like a mad man to the barn. Martin protested and said, "We can't do that!" But Mickey was adamant, "Just watch me," he shouted. When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran to the barn and shot the mule and killed it.

When he got back to the car he saw that Martin had also taken his gun out and smoke was curling from its barrel, too. "What are you doing, Martin?" he yelled. Martin answered, "We'll show that Son-of-a-gun. I killed two of his cows."

One of the questions we all have to deal with from time to time is what to do with our anger. Are we aware of the negative results of our anger? Are we aware how other people respond to our anger? People do stupid things when they are angry, pretend or not, like shooting someone's cows. What are you doing about your anger?

Be angry but do not sin. (Ephesians 4:26)