Over the years I’ve learned not to let certain things move me. I came to the realization and understanding that anger in and of itself resolves nothing. What matters most is what you choose to do with that anger and how you choose to respond.

 

I can get angry with family members, with friends, with believers who refuse to let go of self and pursue unity in the body of Christ, with some of the wealthy who indulge in foolishness instead of helping others, with the magnitude of racism across the country and even the people who refuse to curb their dogs–blatantly inconsiderate of others. There’s just so much to be angry about isn’t there?

 

But what purpose would that serve really? Blow of some steam, scream, shout, give someone a piece of my mind and then what? Feel good? Or just to let off another cycle of screams and shouts and letting someone have it? Feel good yet?

 

Maybe for a moment. Then what?

 

Its interesting because while anger is an ugly emotion, anger as we know it is a normal emotion. I can’t imagine there being a HUMAN being that has never been angry before.

 

For some anger compels them to do something vindictive or vicious. For others, anger compels them to cut everyone off and never trust people again. Just as likely for many, anger compels some to walk in fear and paranoia of the world around them. More often than not, many of these people are carrying a load of bitterness to couple the things that crippling them everyday because of anger.

 

“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”  – Proverbs 25:28

 

Essentially, you’re vulnerable to all of those things.

 

So what is the truth about anger? It’s quite obvious actually. But sometimes, just sometimes it hard to recognize such a blatant truth because you are already lost in a whirlpool.

 

ANGER IS FIRST A REACTION AND THEN A CHOICE.

 

• You are angry, forever angry because you want to be—because you CHOSE to be so. You CHOSE to let so and so get under your skin past the initial hurt. You CHOSE to stay angry even though you can’t remember what you were angry about. You CHOSE to carry a past infliction with you beyond the point the inflictor has already changed and evolved and became a new person.

 

• You are not angry, because you CHOSE to let it go.

 

No matter what way I think about it, I come to this conclusion: We are human and things not only peak our interest, but peak our emotions. When things peak our emotions, things like anger happen (sometimes its love, sometimes its envy, sometimes it adoration, sometimes its hate). That’s normal!

 

BUT, everything that happens after that becomes a choice. If you choose to hold on to it long enough, it turns into bitterness, which my dear friend becomes harder to shake off (It can take weeks, months, years or even decades if you ever decide to let it go).

 

In some twisted way, anger seems to help you feel justified in feeling victimized. When you are victimized, you have a case and when you have a case, people feel sorry for you and when people feel sorry for you, they advocate for you not having a clue as to the root of the issue, but only knowing that because you are angry, they have to some how help you fight the wrong that has wronged you.

 

That’s just the bottom line of the nature of anger, but I can’t sign off without leaving you with a nugget of wisdom from my own experiences.

 

Don’t let anger become such a vicious cycle in your life.

 

• Recognize it for what it is to you. 

 

• Acknowledge it as a real thing.

 

• Acknowledge why you are angry.

 

BUT

 

• Release it to your offender (whether its understood or not)

 

• Write a list of POSITIVE ways you can cope with negativity (even if you have to “google” it)

 

• Practice them in your thoughts, in your words and in your physical activity.
  

 

• Do things that make you smile and laugh

 

• Make a conscious decision to not let anything keep you from moving forward