An introduction to anger

If you’re angry then you're in good company. I know of no one who has never been angry at someone or with something at least once in their life. There is nothing wrong with being angry. Anger is not a sin; therefore, we should stop looking at angry people as sinners. This includes looking at ourselves as sinners because we get angry.

Anger is a gift from God, an emotion given to us when we were made in his image, and comes with many benefits. However, if you are like me, it’s not easy to see how such a strong, powerful emotion can be of any value, especially in the Kingdom of God.

I’ve lived with anger for most of my life, and while it was not wrong for me to be angry, what I did with that anger was often hurtful and damaging to the people I needed most in my life. I am guilty of having been a verbally abusive husband and father. When I drove anywhere, I would be consumed with rage anytime anyone did anything that I deemed unsafe, offensive, or just outright idiotic. I verbally bashed anyone who offended me.

I lived this way for many years, and eventually came to see anger as a raw painful emotion that had no business in the life of a Christian. This greatly confused me becsuse I believed everything God made, including our emotions was made for good. In my mind, however, anger was evil. These two lines of thinking contradicted one another, and I could not reconcile them.

Conflicted by this contradiction, the only logical conclusion I could come up with was that either there were exceptions to God’s goodness ,or my understanding of anger was incorrect. I could not deny the truth that God is perfect in every way, therefore the only answer left was that my understanding of anger was wrong.  This meant there was something good about anger and that God had a divine purpose for giving it to us.

The obvious question, now was what is anger’s divine purpose? Why did God make us with such a strong, powerful, raw emotion that has the ability to inflict pain, damage relationships, and even bring death? What good is all of that? The truth is that anger can be extremely beneficial. I would like to share with you those benefits.