Rising Above the Rage: How to Overcome AngerÀpẹrẹ

Anyone who grew up in the southern United States is familiar with the ubiquitous vine, kudzu, otherwise known as "the vine that ate the south." With the best of intentions, it was brought to the US from Japan as a means of preventing soil erosion. While it did perform that necessary function, it got out of control. It managed to devour everything and anything in its path. In the right conditions, kudzu can grow up to one foot per day! If left untended, what begins as a single, tiny pod can eventually swallow hundreds of acres. Similarly, if left untended, anger can grow completely out of control, impacting every area of our lives and potentially destroying everything in its path. In this devotional series, we will investigate anger. What it is, where it comes from, and then discuss some practical steps for dealing with it.

It's important to understand that anger is a normal human emotion. In and of itself, anger is no more sinful than sadness, happiness, or fear. Paul makes this clear when he tells us not to sin when we are angry. Paul understood anger is a normal and even unavoidable human emotion. A case could be made that sometimes anger is necessary. For example, anger can compel one to address matters of injustice or provide necessary motivation to protect the weak. The scourge of human trafficking can elicit deep feelings of anger that compel one to act on behalf of the victims. These feelings are often described as righteous anger. Perhaps the clearest Scriptural example of righteous anger is when Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip and overturned their tables.

While righteous anger certainly has its place, my observation is that those expressions are few and far between. More often than not, our anger tends to be unrighteous instead of righteous, destructive rather than constructive. Therefore, the goal is to keep anger from providing an occasion for sinful behavior. Unfortunately, that is exceedingly difficult for most people. As the book of James tells us in 1:20, most anger does not accomplish the righteousness God desires but rather displays the selfishness of humanity. Anger is not inherently sinful, but our sinful natures can quickly move it in that direction. At the moment, it's easy to convince ourselves our anger is truly righteous when it actually falls short of the mark.

What are your thoughts about the nature of anger? How frequently do you experience feelings of anger? How often are your feelings legitimately "righteous"? Would you say you have control over your anger, or does it sometimes seem to be controlling you?