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Deal With Anger Or Die With It
Brian Mashburn
November 4, 2018
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Anger: Deal With It Or Die From It
"What are you so angry about?"
The question is simultaneously an accusation and a real question. So many people walk around with a low-grade anger-fever peculating just beneath the surface of their proverbial and usually thin skin. Those around them see it and know it all too well, especially those closest. Strangely, we give ourselves permission to allow unaddressed anger to blow up on those we love the most.
I hope you have read the book of Jonah, at least once, and are familiar enough with the story to have seen its power. The themes of calling, disobedience, discipline, repentance, and second chances jump off the page in dramatic fashion. It can help us find ourselves, our stories, and even hope, as we are invited to move closer to the grace and power and will of God.
Because of the "big fish" part of the story, Jonah is often called some kind of "fairy tale," but as we wrap up this series in chapter 4, you will see that it does not end with a "they lived happily ever after." In fact, it ends with the above probing, confronting, unresolved question.
Pause. There is a righteous anger, I believe, of the sort that Jesus exhibited when he saw injustice being issued towards the weak, helpless, or marginalized. But there is also an anger that is wholly unrighteous - evil even - that stems from unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, or jealousy and a desire to see others "put in their place."
There is absolutely no place for this in any Christian, who, like Jonah, has been forgiven and restored. I believe Jonah has an unsatisfying, unresolved ending because God intends it to be satisfied and resolved... in you.