Anger and Fear

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          I have a friend who lives in some faraway place, on the other side of the border, just beyond the jumping off place. He has one of those not-so-Southern accents, the kind that makes you listen twice as hard, if you want to understand what he is saying. Sometimes you do; sometimes you do not. Thankfully, he sent the following to me in printed form. I thought it worth your reading. No, my friend is not the author, but you can give him credit, if you like.

ANGER

What is not love is fear. Anger is one of fear’s most potent faces. And it does exactly what fear wants it to do: It keeps us from receiving love at exactly the moment when we need it most. Our greatest need, when fearful, is to be able to express how scared we are. Instead, of course, we are often tempted to express anger, meekly hoping that somehow, someone will read our minds and say “I know you’re only angry because you feel so scared. Come here and I’ll love you”. There are those rare moments when the other person is involved enough to do that; in the vast majority of cases, however, our anger will send others further and further away from us, increasing our pain and increasing our terror. What we give to others stays with us. That is true of both love and fear. Anger, then, is not to be denied but surrendered to God. Our prayer is to be shown an alternative way of conflict resolution. We want both to be in touch with our anger and to release our anger. What we do not want is to project our anger onto someone else in the false belief that we will then feel better. Such behavior offers only temporary relief. Before we express our anger to others, the attitude of empowerment is to express our anger as well as our pain to God. He can handle it. The line “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” actually means just that. When the anger mounts, call on God. Tell Him First.

          You think about that—

         

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).