Well, I could say all kinds of things about this, can’t I? At 71, hasn’t he learned patience yet? What about loving his neighbor as himself? As a preacher he’s probably preached on these topics so they should have been familiar to him. But I think the best thing is to admit that this is an area of struggle for me as well, I wouldn’t pull a gun on someone, but I have been known to call people idiots and yell.
I guess we can see from this story that the struggle to conform to the will of God is an on going process that we will have for the rest of our lives. We may think we’ll somehow reach a level of sanctification when we become a senior citizen (with age comes wisdom) and have been a Christian for a lifetime but we may find that like this pastor we’ll lose our cool and come face to face with the old man (Ephesians 4:22), thinking he’s long gone but realizing he was there all the time.
When we read stories like this we should keep in mind these passage:

ESV 1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
ESV Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

It is a struggle to conform to the will of God, one we will have for the rest of our lives. Yes, we would love to be able to demonstrate the love of Christ and be a good witness of his love and mercy but we also put ourselves first and what we want takes precedent. We know that shouldn’t be the case, yet we do it anyway.
Whether Paul was speaking of sinning before or after conversion, no passage captures the Christian’s struggle with sin like Romans 7:

ESV Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

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