Finding God In The Change: Fight Fear, Failure and FatigueSample

All the Feels

Transition gives us “all the feels”. Whether we are changing by personal choice, other people's choices that affect us, or because of a sudden loss or gain, we need to manage our inner life with strength and health, so that our decisions in the shift are building a life we love, and feel proud to live.

Perhaps the least acknowledged “feel” we face in transition, is anger, which society often treats like the cardinal sin of emotions. We’re taught to stuff it somewhere, and the problem with stuffing anything is that it’s a volcano waiting to blow. Instead, we can recognize how to express and channel anger productively. Anger is an important emotion, that invites us to consider the disappointment, hurt, or selfishness lurking beneath the surface of our experience. 

Can I take us back to the prophet Jonah for a minute? Chapter four has become a joy to read, especially now that I have children. I notice that God never leaves Jonah’s side, through his anger, clap backs, and serious attitude. And I notice Jonah decides to stay in God’s presence, while giving him the stank eye. “Is it right for you to be angry?” God asks him twice. Jonah ignores him the first time, and on the second, he retorts, “It is, and I am so angry I wish I was dead!”

Listen, if the scholars are right, Jonah was more than justified in his anger. If someone killed my friends or family, I wouldn’t want their soul to be saved AT ALL. No wonder Jonah was mad at God’s mercy toward the very people who had used their power to hurt him, and others. Jonah’s anger though, no matter how legitimate, caused him to run from purpose, to not use his voice, to have no compassion for people in pain, and finally, to isolate in bitterness. God’s response to him, cuts through all his excuses to remain mad at the world.

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

120,000 people with the chance to change, from a person they hurt, terribly. Friend, I love boundaries, healthy relationships, and getting away from unsafe people. At the same time, if God invites us to go into the very place we were hurt, as a catalyst for breakthrough, why would we say no? It was a 15-minute assignment for Jonah, not including travel time. God didn’t say, hey, go be their friend, and build a home among them; he said, go and preach repentance. And when Jonah finally did, there was immediate change, all the way up to the King, who created new policies for the people of Nineveh to refrain from evil and violence. 

He changed an entire city with his obedience. What’s the lesson? Say what needs to be said, and do what needs to be done, no matter the emotions we’re feeling. Channel all that pain into obedience. It hurts to disobey God, and sometimes, it hurts to obey Him, so we might as well let the hurt we feel be for our good. Don’t allow pain and anger to make you selfish, becoming a person who withholds, when it is within your power to do good for others. 

Surrender, trust and obey… Great words to return to during times of transition.

Practice: Where are you giving God the side-eye right now? Is there an injustice you’re enraged about? Is there a particular person, or people group, or organization, that you struggle to forgive? Is there someone you just don’t want to be blessed with healing, deliverance, or even salvation? In the notes section of your phone, or on a piece of paper, write down the names. Consider the hurt you carry. Then, out loud, or quietly in your heart, say or write: “I forgive you for hurting me. And Lord, I ask your forgiveness for holding on to this anger. It is not right for me to be angry. I release this hurt, and in its place, I ask for Your peace, Your justice, Your mercy for me, and the one who has offended me.”