The Anguish of Anger....

Standing on the shore as you know that a tsunami is coming in...

Watching through a window as a tornado roars down the plain...

Standing on the ground as the whole earth shakes and the Richter measurements keep only increasing...


That is the anguish of anger...


I have heard you can tell by the way the air feels that a tornado is forming somewhere, you might not see it yet but the atmosphere is full of static and an energy that sends inhabitants scurrying for the storm cellar.


Do you remember doing the same? Scurrying, running... scattering to avoid the oncoming turmoil.


But there wasn't a cellar to run to, maybe it was under the bed or maybe it was just shrinking back into a corner hoping you could disappear.


I remember as a child just hearing the foot steps upon the stairs that came up from the basement would send me running to my bedroom.


As an adult it wouldn't be under a bed that I would try and hide..


As an adult you learn to walk on egg shells, you learn to watch the horizon for any tell tale signs, you placate, you swallow, you cease to breath...

That is the anguish of anger...


The anguish of anger does not just attack the target.  The anguish of anger lives deeply within the hearts of all involved.  With no excuse of behavior, action or words.. the anguish of anger comes forth from the pit of hell coming to rob, steal and destroy.


Life ceases and the heart shrivels back and shrivels up ...


Jim and I have had our fair share of outbursts of anger.  It is brutal.  What is more brutal is when you are in ministry and your life is "supposedly beyond blessed."  I talk to more couples, and wives and husbands about the need to have safe places to express their own hurts and challenges.  The isolation and loneliness of the struggle is coupled with the issues and hearts truly perish.


We are truly blessed in this area of life... first, I refuse to put on any facade.  How can anyone truly learn from me?  What authority will I really have in the spirit if I live a pretense?  Make sure everything is pretty for you but inside I'm perishing.

That was the chastisement towards the pharisees.


You white wash tombs...

You are full of dead bones...


That is the worse part of the  anguish of anger... The "white wash tomb" aspect that comes into life as the person or people try to maintain the exterior appearance while perishing on the inside.. while being just a pile of dead bones instead of a resurrected magnificent participant in an exceedingly great army of dry bones turned into risen warriors.


We have been blessed.  Even while I wouldn't put on a facade, we are surrounded by community where we do not have keep up any appearance.  Where we are loved and cherished and supported through good times and not so good times.


The anguish of anger silents.  The anguish of anger suffocates.  The anguish of anger contorts and hinders and blows through lives.


A safe refuge is needed.  The shadow of the Almighty, the strong tower of our God,  the love and support of the Body of Christ (not the condemnation).


In the middle of the storms of all our lives we need the love and support and strength of others to help carry us through,  to help point us to God... to help us over come the anguish that would barrel down upon our souls.


The anguish of anger comes in action and in inaction... the roaring of the one side of the tornado only to hit the calm and then only to hit the other side,  the freight train of life comes roaring down the tracks and destroys everything in its path.


But if people aren't left there.. if people aren't left alone... if intervention is granted... and love poured forth then the anguish of anger's thievery doesn't get to have the last say.  The battle not against flesh and blood, the truest of enemies gets defeated and all that suffered under the anguish of anger begin to learn to live again.  Finding new ways to navigate the tumultuous terrains of life with peace and confidence and perfected love that casts out the fear that only feeds into the anguish of anger.

Have hope... have strength.. have joy ....  Because though weeping may last for a night, for a season, for a long season... joy does come in the morning...

Let not the anguish of anger  silent your voice, kill your heart... murder your hope.. antagonize you life....

Let not   the anguish of anger isolate you and terrorize you...


May a heavenly calm saturate the fiber of your being.  May the tension of the atmosphere dissipate and may you be left with clear blue skies and quiet meadows.  May you be embraced and sheltered instead of tossed, may you find safe refuges and may the anguish of anger be removed from your life and your home and your past and your present and your future.