"'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)
The good Lord has blessed me with an overabundance of emotion. Sometimes it really is a blessing, like when I'm so happy I could burst. Other times it's a difficult struggle, and one of my more thorny struggles is anger. It's not that I'm angry too often, in fact I usually have a remarkably abundant amount of patience. The problem is that when I do get angry, it burns hot. I'm one of those people - you probably know many - who are really nice, until they're pushed over the edge and get... really not nice. Because of this, I struggle with the first part of this passage: "In your anger do not sin" (which actually comes from Psalm 4:4, if you want some extra reading today). When anger flares up and begins to consume us, as humans we struggle to cope. We end up doing things that are so unlike our normal selves that when it's all said and done we can hardly believe what we did, or considered doing. The anger usually stems from pain of some kind, and pain makes people lash out. My personal struggle is a tendency to make potent verbal attacks. I know how to hit where it hurts, and twist words into the most effective weapon. Since I always think communication is important, it's only natural that my reaction to anger is to communicate it, but the struggle I face is finding ways to let it out without causing damage that I won't be able to repair. I'm sure you all have a particular angry vice that is similar, if not the same.
We're often told that it's a good idea to take a break when we're angry and cool off, and I agree that it's important. Sometimes walking away from a fight is necessary to avoid saying those words you'll regret later. Unfortunately we sometimes use this philosophy to try and bury our anger, and not come back and address it again. This doesn't work, psychologically or spiritually. Your mind is not a sieve, and it will not forget the wrongs that were important enough to inspire anger in the first place. Even if you're able to move on fairly easily, chances are the other person involved is not, and by not addressing the wrongs that were done you are forcing them to continue in their sin. God didn't tell us to bury our sins. He told us to repent of them. Repentance requires acknowledging what we did wrong and asking for forgiveness, from the person we wronged and from God. We need to have the humility-filled conversations in which we speak the truth in love and air out our grievances with one another. Holding on to anger, or pretending it isn't there, only gives Satan a perfect doorway to tempt us into more sin and cause more destruction.
Anger isn't right, but it is a persistent part of our sinful nature. Fortunately there's no sin that God cannot handle. He sent Christ to die for all sins, so that we could have forgiveness from Him, and extend that forgiveness to each other. Don't let your anger sink deep into your heart, to poison you from the inside. Acknowledge the pain that caused the anger, speaking the truth in love. Trust your brothers and sisters in Christ to show understanding and forgive as we have all been forgiven.
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