Anger

          “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.  (Ephesians 4:26-27)

           Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:14-17)

          In Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, he advises his progressive disciples to feed the fear and anger of groups, because even if they don’t accomplish their goals through the energy of these two emotions, they can more easily be motivated to accomplish the goals of their progressive leader. That wasn’t exactly breaking news, even back in 1971 when it was written. I didn’t read his book until a few years ago, but back in 1979 when I first worked at the library, I found that if I got mad about something – anything – I shelved more books. Maybe I figured that out after watching The Incredible Hulk. Anger became my stimulant of choice. There were some underlying factors that made getting angry easy. One of them was being a teenager.

          One of the unfortunate side effects was addiction. Twenty years later, I used anger as my motivation again in my hated job as a glorified stock clerk. I remember praying many times, “Lord, I don’t know how to not fight.” My fight wasn’t one of fists and feet, but of fiery eyes and an unpleasant disposition. One of the struggles I faced – and still face – is that peace tends to equal death in my mind, because the lack of peace is an emotional roller coaster, while peace is an emotion flatline by comparison. I know that my thinking is faulty on this, but if I don’t think about it, that’s the direction my mind takes.

          Right now, the world seems to be functioning on those same ideas. Our college students (I-Geners, not Millennials) are being taught that ideas that don’t align with what their progressive professors are teaching them are dangerous. They need to be afraid of them, and, while tolerance is a good thing in general, intolerance, up to and including the use of violence, of those with non-progressive ideas is justified. Everything that happens is used to fuel that fire, and those who feel it think themselves “woke.”

           Anger by itself is not evil. It’s a warning to us that something is wrong, just as fear is. Dealing with the situation quickly, before the sun goes down, allows your body to rest. That’s healthy for your body, your mind, and your relationships. Once again, Paul is giving sound advice.

          Feeling anger isn’t the problem. Feeding it is. Keeping the fire going, learning to function based on anger, which might also be described as developing an angry attitude is not good. Anger separates you from the one with whom you’re angry – and if you don’t really have anyone to be angry with, if it’s just with the whole situation, or the universe, or something equally ambiguous, the reality is that you’re probably angry with God. Even anger at other people tends to have an element of anger with God, because God isn’t making that person see reason, God isn’t solving the problem, or God even caused the problem… “the woman that You gave me…”

           Anger is a powerful weapon used against us, and like all the weapons used against us, we really need all of the armor listed in Ephesians 6. The weapons that seem to be most useful, however, are the belt of truth, the boots of the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) is a weapon against anger. How can you maintain an attitude of anger if you love the one with whom you’re angry? Or if you are joyful, or at peace, or patient, or kind… Anger may be a powerful weapon, but it’s a sword without a hilt. You wield it by holding the blade, meaning that in the act of cutting another, you cut yourself as badly.
         I feel the need to add a final caution about anger. There are jokes being shared online about how married couples being quarantined together end up divorced or killing one another.  They're amusing, and exaggerated (I hope)  but they also point out a very real problem. Quarantining, and even social distancing can produce anger, whether at the others stuck with us, with the government that issues the order, or with those we see as rebellious or making life more difficult for us by (as we see it) ignoring the orders. Those grumbled (or even clearly stated) complaints mean you've been attacked, and the angry words coming out of your mouth or playing like a broken record in your mind are evidence that you've lost the battle. Jesus told us to pray for our enemies.