‘Wrraaaarrggghh! Hulk smash!’ Fan boys have to wait an hour-and-a-half into the new film, The Incredible Hulk, to hear those two, well, nearly three, immortal words roared out by the anything but jolly green giant, but it’s certainly worth the wait. It comes in a smack-down between our verdant-skinned hero and his devastatingly powerful, and equally emerald mutant opposite, The Abomination.

In the original comic book stories The Abomination is actually stronger than The Hulk, but generally always gets his comeuppance because he can’t match the latter’s sheer, unbridled ferocity. He’s green enough; he’s just not mean enough.

There are many occasions in life when we’d all like to go green-eyed, and I’m not talking about coveting our neighbour’s ride-on lawn mower. Imagine being able to display your ire at the umpteenth train delay that week by hoisting the 7.45 from Tring on your shoulders and delivering it, on time, yourself! Of course, just like in the Hulk TV series of the 1970s, no one would get hurt.

Poor old Bruce Banner. When push comes to shove – and it nearly always does – he has no control over what happens next, his inner demon nearly always gets his exercise. So what about us? When we’re taken towards the end of our tether, what’s on display – patient endurance, or rank rage?

The biblical book of James is pretty clear on this issue: we should, it teaches, be ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires’ (James 1:19, 20). In other words, as one commentator has observed, our Christian maturity is to be clearly demonstrated in our interactions with others. James’s instruction guides us toward the spiritual discipline of listening both to God – through his Word and through private reflection – and to others, in whatever situation we find ourselves. Cultivating an attentive heart is one of the surest ways to ‘grow in favour with God and man’ and also to stave off anger.

In The Incredible Hulk we see Bruce Banner’s private dedication to practising self-control, including the enlisting of the help and support of a mentor, in order that he might learn to ‘keep his cool’. Similarly, if we’re to mature as followers of Christ we’d do well to dedicate ourselves to cultivating the fruit of self-control under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

Jason Gardner

Links

Read the Daily Telegraph’s review of The Incredible Hulk here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/13/bfhulk113.xml.

Seeing red? Then head on over to this anger management site:http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/coping_angermanagement1.shtml.