ASK THREE QUESTIONS
Ask three questions to see what’s inside:
What makes you laugh, with nothing to hide?
What makes you angry, and ready to fight?
What makes you cry, long into the night?
Some say we need leaders filled with rage,
To fight the battles, to storm the stage.
But anger alone, though fierce and strong,
Can miss the mark, can steer us wrong.
We need anguish, a deeper plea,
A broken heart that yearns to see.
The difference clear, as night from day,
Is a heart that breaks, but finds its way.
Jesus, He showed us how to feel,
With righteous anger, a heart so real.
He cleansed the temple, fury bright,
Yet wept for the city, during the night.
So ask three questions, learn what’s true,
Find the depth in those around you.
In laughter, anger, as well as in cries,
See a person’s soul, through honest eyes.
By Medard Laz From A Poem a Day to Pray
GOD WILL MAKE YOU INTO WHAT YOU CANNOT MAKE OF YOURSELF!
My Commentary:
This poem offers a surprisingly simple way to understand another person — and ourselves.
Ask what makes you laugh, what makes you angry, and what makes you cry. The answers reveal what lives deepest in your heart.
Laughter reveals our joy. Anger reveals what we believe is wrong. Tears reveal what we love.
All three, laughter, anger and tears — belonged to Jesus. He celebrated at weddings and shared meals with friends. He became angry when the Temple was turned into a marketplace. But perhaps most revealing of all, Jesus wept.
He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He wept over Jerusalem. His tears revealed something deeper than anger: anguish. Anger says, “This is wrong.” Anguish says, “This is wrong, and it breaks my heart.”
Our world has plenty of angry people. Our politics, social media, and public conversations are filled with outrage. But anger by itself can become destructive. We need leaders — and ordinary people — whose hearts can still break. People who do not simply attack what is wrong but ache for those who are hurting.
That is the difference between rage and compassion.
The final line may be the most important: “God will make you into what you cannot make of yourself.”
Christianity is not simply a program of self-improvement. We bring God our laughter, anger, tears, weaknesses, and unfinished lives. Then we allow grace to transform them.
Ask the three questions of yourself.
What makes me laugh?
What makes me angry?
What makes me cry?
Then ask one more:
Lord, what are You trying to make of me?
The answer may take a lifetime.
But that lifetime, lived with God, is how saints are made.
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