"I'm not angry, I'm hurt," a young woman confides to me.
"What if hurt is anger turned inward?" I ask her.
Shock fills her face; and a flash of "maybe" shows in her eyes as I share, "Unmet needs are usually felt in hurt, offense, or anger. Let's look at your unmet needs. We will pray for God to show us reality: true need as opposed to wants or perceived needs."
I know this "place" myself and I've ministered to many folks with ruptured relationship problems. I've begun to research misused anger and poor physical and emotional health. I am feeling a strong drawing to write about anger and Christians. Recently I think I "got it."
Ephesians 4:26 (NKJV) "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
I've been afraid to dare to truly own my anger most of my life. I rationalized away true anger and came up with comfortable emotions for a Bible-believing-baptized-church member-leader. In this complex dodge of my true feelings I've overeaten, needlessly shopped, developed depression with repressed anger and missed what God intended totally.
I've decided to explore how we can please Father God honestly when anger erupts in our emotions. You blog readers are my first line of investigation of viewpoints and experiences on obeying God "to be angry" and not sinning. The greek word for "sin" is to miss the mark. Could we be missing the mark in our denial of the God given emotion of anger?
I'll start this sharing with why I may have been afraid to "be angry." In my early childhood home my dad was a violent alcoholic. Finally this spiraled into destroying our home. My mom had emotional breakdowns. She was left emotionally crippled and at home she had a short fuse when it was just the two of us at home. I have feared emulating either one of them and going "postal" with no control...."just give me another piece of cake," or "I'll take a nap," or "I need to shop a while." I think I've sinned trying not to be angry.
I'm writing a book on BE Angry....I truly need your viewpoint. Speak up, please.
Talk to me about your anger.........or your avoidance of your anger.
