A Giant Problem: Anger

When I was little, I had a giant problem. 

I decided to not be angry. 

Ever. 

Anger is scary, and who wants to be scary? 

In my experience, anger was a terrifying emotion that led to lots of people being hurt, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so I just decided that my role in life was to make everyone happy. I’d be “happy-perky Heather” and then I’d never feel the weight of hurting others. 

But I felt hurt.

I never learned how to express these feelings that I felt, ones I couldn’t really explain. Feelings of … maybe unfairness, or frustration, or aggravation-wait, maybe I never learned how to be angry?!

How is that? 

In my head, anger equaled rage and rage equaled violence, so I definitely didn’t want to be angry!

So here I was, a 30 year old woman, trying to figure out these feelings I had that made absolutely no sense to me. Can you imagine?

I knew God made me exactly how I was, and he gave me the emotions I have, but why in the world would he give me this emotion that I was so scared of? One that I absolutely couldn’t explain?

James 1:19-20 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

Does this mean God desires anger? I think he does.  I think he allows this emotion to help us solve problems and to help fight injustice.

Anger rooted in pride however, is sinful. Let’s talk about that word, “root”. When I get upset and bite someone’s head off, I may say that they made me so angry and I just lost my temper! But why did I lose my temper? What is the underlying sin that caused me to use the emotion God gave me as a warning sign to hurt someone else with my words? Maybe I felt disrespected because I didn't feel good enough, maybe I felt fear that my imperfections were going to make someone leave because I didn’t do everything right. Or maybe I felt righteousness - I didn’t think I did anything wrong, so why would they even have a problem with me? 

Once I am able to find the root of the sin, the real issue, I am able to repent of that sin, and find peace in the forgiveness that God will give me. He will relieve me of the burden of being “happy-perky Heather”; of feeling like if I’m not perfect, everyone will be angry at me. 

How in the world did anger help me to see the deeper sin that lives in my heart? How did this terrifying emotion that I was so scared of actually help me to see who I really am in Christ? When I take the time to dig deeper into what caused this giant emotion, I am able to see that God doesn’t expect joy and happiness all the time, he only wants me to run to him in those times when I feel anger so he can remind me of who I am in him. I am constantly amazed at how God works in me. I encourage you to look into the anger in your life, find out what it is that God is calling to your attention, and talk to him about it. He doesn’t need you to be happy-perky you, he just needs YOU. 

I challenge you to make sure anger doesn’t become a giant in your life, causing you to settle for less than God’s best for you. 

by: Heather Brickhouse, Ministry Associate