The Human Broadcast: What Your Anger Reveals + Traveling to the Northeast

Day 5: What Makes You Angry Is What You Worship

It is ubiquitous in our lives, whether we deal with a stubborn child or co-worker, traffic or burnt food, abortion or war. It is in our DNA to react to something, and that reaction is generally what the Bible calls anger. But anger is not just a normal reaction; it is the way we react when something we think is important isn’t the way it is supposed to be.

The Bible is a response book to either man’s anger or God’s anger, and there is no need for a coin toss to figure out who is righteous and who most often is not. God is infinitely righteous, and his anger is fleeting, but his favor lasts forever. So every time we look at the world, we should be grateful that God is spectacularly unfair. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He would crush us at the first sounds of our frustration and complaints about the weather if he did.

But God is merciful.

When the Scriptures define anger, it assumes that we will be angry at some time or another. After the Fall, we are in constant opposition to things, ideas, people, and actions. When we see something that is not the way it should be, we react emotionally. We do not always respond in visible anger. Sometimes we store it in the bottom of our hearts, and sometimes we hide it under a bushel until we let it shine. Anger rises from the heart because our hearts daily seek to oppose something. Like the poor, anger will always be with us, and we are poorer because of it, since our anger often looks like a revenge story rather than a pursuit of justice. Unrighteous anger is justice gone wild.

Why is it that we have an angry nature within us? Because we are created to broadcast our values to the world. Tonight, before bed, as you pick up your pen to write or your mind to wander, ask yourself, “What made me most angry today?” The answer will reveal what you most treasure in life. The world shall know us by our fruit, and often our fruit is a pile of disconnected words used to hurt others. There is righteous anger at sin, and there is anger used to manipulate or wound. More often, we choose to broadcast our unrighteous anger.

No Neutrality: Bitterness Is Stored Anger

I am focusing on the negative dimension of anger because it is the most common human experience. We get irritable in the twinkling of an eye. We argue because deep inside, we like conflict. Even the person who says he does not like conflict finds an appetite for it.

Consider this carefully. If you see a consistent moral wrong and do not confront it, you are saying that the moral wrong is not worth face-to-face investment. To be passive toward moral evil is still a position. There is no escape and no neutrality. And when anger, active or passive, is not dealt with for a long time, we call that bitterness. Bitterness is the accumulation of anger undealt with over time.

So now that we have accused ourselves of being angry humans, what is the solution?

First, we do not need help from unrighteous anger. We need rescue from its domain. God does not throw us a lifeboat in the sea of rage. He reshapes categories in our hearts and minds so we deal with anger rightly. Anger will always be with us, so the real question is how we control it in this sin-stricken world.

In Paul’s writings, when he mentions unrighteous anger, the contrasting virtues are love, faith, and service to others. We sin in anger when we cannot see another person’s world. We prefer self-love, self-trust, and self-service. The implication is simple. We focus too much on ourselves and how we want reality arranged according to our own eyes.

If the only discourse I enjoy is where I am the center of attention, then I believe I have the right to be angry at everything. We often use anger as justification for vicious speech. We baptize it with a dignified religious-sounding name, giving ourselves permission for what is often nothing more than sanctified selfishness.

“I got angry because I love you.”
“I said harsh things so you would improve.”

That is not righteous anger. It is self-righteous anger. And we must pray that God rescues us from it.

The Gospel Cure: Proportion Restored

If unrighteous anger is how we react when something we think important is not as it should be, then we must learn what truly should be. At this point in history, virtually nothing is as it should be, which means our reasons for anger multiply constantly. But one thing remains steady. God is as he should be, and his mercies multiply constantly.

Our sense of justice is not the primary problem. Our sense of proportion is.

When our children disobey, we think yelling is God’s solution, when a simple question about their day might accomplish more. When a friend betrays us, we imagine that destroying his reputation restores order to the universe. We are deceived.

If anger is constantly burning in our hearts, it is because our desires have gone mad. The cure is not suppression but reorientation. Prayer with the saints, acts of service, selflessness, and encouragement to others. These are God’s antidotes. They train us to see the needs of others above our own and to rely on the Gospel to change our hearts one word at a time, one vicious thought at a time, one frustration at a time.

God does not merely reduce anger. He restores proportion. And when proportion is restored, mercy becomes believable again.

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Nuntium

My traveling is on an October-October schedule, and as of now, it’s been at least 10 years since I have stayed put in Pensacola this long. But things are about to change a bit. I am getting ready to head to the Northeast this week: Jamestown, D.C., and Lancaster. I’ll be taking a small homeschool tour with my son #3, followed by several speaking engagements at our D.C. plant, and then pastoral training with a solid group of pastors and pastoral interns in Lancaster, PA.

Pray for steady strength, clarity of mind, and endurance for the travel and conversations ahead. I’m grateful for these opportunities and eager for what the Lord will do through them, but I would appreciate prayers for stamina, attentiveness to people, and the grace to serve well in each place.