Anger and sin

How’s that for a title which prompts one to quickly skip to the next blog post (or the next blog)? OK- to crisply make my point- anger is good when it is used at the right time for the right reason. Unfortunately, that 2nd little three-letter word also gets involved so quickly, a fact which came to mind as I read this fascinating article about anger in American politics and culture. In it, Mr. Wood wants to posit that the New Anger has practically taken over our cultural discourse, and I (sadly) am forced to agree with much of what he says. I confess that I recently faxed a letter to a number of state politicians that was dripping with all the sarcastic anger I could get in three paragraphs (my estimation of the volunteer aide’s attention span who will (maybe) read it). I did have some constructive things to say, along with a request for action, so it wasn’t a complete waste of telephone/fax bits. Actually, since I have limited time and these people don’t know me personally, I think it was my most effective way to communicate (voters are supposed to do that, I believe) outside of writing checks or actually voting.

Is there anger in your future? How do you handle it when someone gets violently, profanely angry with you? My overarching rule regarding my own anger is connected to the sun (Ephesians 4:26)– when it goes down, make sure the anger is gone, too. The man who wrote this, BTW, used to angrily execute people in God’s name, so I consider him highly qualified to help me control my anger, as he himself had to learn to do. Finally, the Lord, the creator of anger, is most fortunately slow to be that way (Exodus 34:6), thus giving us all time to consider what He might be angry with us about. Do we ever do it?

One Reply to “Anger and sin”

  1. Very interesting dad, a lot of what he says makes sense, and is rather saddening. Personally, I “deal” with anger by, for the most part, not being angry, since it is always a waste of energy and accomplishes nothing (the self righteous anger, not the righteous anger). I do not know very much about dealing with other people’s anger, since I have not had many people angry at me (for an extended period of time). My parting comment would be that we must bring everything to the Lord, the creator and controllor of the universe, and pray to him for patience and peace. And, praise the Lord, he has promised to give us just that.

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