Temper - Temper!

(Are you an “Africanized Bee?)

Let’s consider the bee for a few moments. They are a marvel of God’s engineering! This tiny winged insect sips the nectar from flowers and by some wonderful metamorphosis, turns it into honey. In the proccess of sipping the nectar, they pollinate the plants, which in most cases is necessary for the plants to produce fruits and vegetables.

The bee communicates with it’s hive-mates using vibrations of it’s wings because it’s entirely dark inside the hive. By using it’s intricate dance a bee can tell others in the hive exactly where she found a large group of flowers, waiting to be sipped.

Most bees are cautious insects. They carry a stinger that can inflict a painful wound on a human or an animal that comes too close to the bee, but at a great cost to the bee! The bee sting is fatal to all the bees, except the queen of the hive. All others have one chance to sting, and unless they are threatened or provoked, they usually choose NOT to use it. In order to sting, the bee must inject her barbed stinger into her victim, then an internal pump starts to work, pumping venom into the victim until the reservoir is empty. When the bee pulls loose from the victim, the barbed stinger stays in and pulls part of her internal organs out, and she dies.

Most bees are so very careful to not use their stingers, because they “know” they will die, and they are important to the hive! Only in extreme cases will a bee choose to sting, choosing rather to fly away if at all possible.

But, the Africanized bees are different. These bees are easily provoked and they immediately fly into a rage and attack en mass. They angrily swoop in to attack anyone who gets too close to them, not caring that they will kill themselves with their own anger.

How like bees we are! We have become a society of “Africanized bees!” Almost every day we hear on the news about “road rage,” a new phenomenon in which otherwise intelligent human beings snap and become murderous simply because someone was driving incorrectly.

Go to any supermarket and get in line to check out, and watch the tempers rise as people wait in line for their turn. We immediately turn from rational human beings to raging lunatics in our impatience to be checked out and on our way.

We need to pray to ask God to remind us to “be angry and sin not.” We need to be slow to anger, and cautious with when and where we choose to use our anger. Let’s not kill ourselves in our hurry to blow up at another human being. Let’s not be “Africanized bees.”

WoSLaL 1956