Anger

People seem so angry right now. And I’m not just talking about the news out of the supreme court. The other day I was at the mall to buy some new dress pants. A lady in the parking lot flipped me off as I was driving. I guess she thought I should have stopped for her as she was crossing the street on the other side. People in the mall seemed curt with one another. As I was leaving there were two women having an argument in the parking lot about the harsh way the one woman was parenting her child. This window of time was just a peek at what feels like an undercurrent of anger pervading out daily lives.

Anger in and of itself is not a bad thing. I can come up with lots of reasons for people to be angry; inflation, the war in Ukraine, post-pandemic stress, injustice, and the aforementioned supreme court. What is a problem is when we let our anger bubble over. I do this with our daughter Paige. I’ll be mad about a rude email from my school board work and I’ll snap at her. I’m not angry with Paige, but she is there and a convenient outlet for my feelings. I can’t yell at Justice Alito to put his socks down the laundry shoot or to be more considerate of others, but I can yell at my kid.

Sometimes receiving some else’s anger can be a gift to the other person. All last year during the pandemic the school board received a lot of anger, much of it misplaced. People were really angry because life had changed so much. Or they were angry because they were scared of sickness and death. Yelling at us in public comment was a safe way for people to express what they were feeling. It just then gets hard for us to not turn that anger towards staff or our families.

I think part of the reason people seem so angry right now is that we as a culture aren’t very good with anger. We often hold it in until it explodes. I try not to do this by praying. I always yell at God when I’m angry about an injustice or something I think is wrong. I’ve had so many people tell me they are afraid to be angry with God. My reply is that God is big enough to take all of our human emotions. God gave us those emotions in the first place. And it’s not like God doesn’t already know you are mad! It’s also helpful to remember that anger is portrayed throughout the bible. Got gets angry and sends the flood. Many of the people in the bible get mad, with Jesus famously flipping over tables and whipping people. We might not want to go that far, but expressing our emotions in healthy ways is part of living in to our God given fullness as people.

So when you get angry find a way to express that. Rant at the right person, write a letter then rip it up, throw eggs at a tree, pray, scream, cry. Life is hard and frustrating and God is always with us in even those times at the mall.

-Eilidh