Where To Send The Anger

 

When you're upset, what are you supposed to do? Yell at your family? No. Yell at the pet? No. Yell at your boss? No. Yell at your friends? No. Yell at the traffic? Sure, but be careful your road rage doesn't cause an accident.

There's a story I heard about a man who was extremely frustrated at work, and he would come home from work and yell at his wife and kids to get the anger out. His wife made him stop and go yell at the tree in the backyard instead. So the man would come home and before going inside would yell and scream his frustrations out at the tree. Eventually, the tree stopped growing and even died. If anger can do that to a tree, imagine what it can do to a human being.

Sometimes when people are angry they feel powerless. So they take out their frustration on some poor innocent soul. The hapless person takes an undeserved verbal beating and potentially passes it along to others.

Where can you go when you are angry than? Who can you turn to? A psychologist could be a good place to start, but if that's not for you, how about we ask Madeleine L'Engle.

In her book, Dragons in the Waters, there is a young teen who has lost his parents and been taking in by his caring and straight forward aunt.
...
"Look at them." Aunt Leonis pointed skyward. "They're all suns, sun after sun, in galaxy after galaxy, beyond our seeing, beyond our wildest conceiving. Many thousands of those suns must have planets, and it's surely arrogant of us to think of our earth as being the only planet in creation with life on it. Look at the sky, Simon. It's riddled with creation. How does God keep track of it all?"

"Maybe he doesn't," Simon ... said.

"You're thinking, perhaps, that he didn't keep very good track of your mother and father."

Simon made no answer.

Aunt Leonis continued to look up at the stars. "I don't know about you, Simon, but I get very angry with God for not ordering things as I would like them ordered. And I'm very angry with your parents for dying young. It is extremely unfair to you."

"They didn't do it on purpose," Simon defended hotly. "They didn't mean to die. They didn't want to die."

"I am aware of that. But it doesn't keep me from being angry. Nor you. You've been angry all week, Simon, but you're taking it out on the wrong things. It's better to take it out on God. He can cope with all our angers. That's one thing my long span of chronology has taught me. If I take all my anger, if I take all my bitterness over the unfairness of this mortal life and throw it all to God, he can take it all and transform it into love before he gives it back to me."

Simon dug his hands into his pockets. "If he has all of these galaxies and all of these stars and all of these planets, I wouldn't think he'd have much time left over for people."

"I somehow think he does. Because he isn't bound by time or quantity the way we are. I think that he does know what happens to people, and that he does care."

"Why did he let my father and mother die, then?"

"We all die to this life, Simon, and in eternity sooner or later doesn't make much never mind."
...

God. God can take your anger. He can take anything you throw at him. Being angry at God is proof that you believe in Him. Take all your anger and bitterness and unfairness and throw it to God. He'll take it and transform it to love then return it to you.

Many teenagers get terribly angry at their parents. They still love their parents and would be devastated in they were gone, but they can still get angry as only a teenager can at their parents. Being angry at God is the same. You can love God but still be very upset with him.

You may feel insignificant, like you don't matter. How could God actually take the time to care about you when there are so many that are in worse places? When there are just so many others? God is all powerful, he is not bounded by time or quantity. He does know and he does care.

If you don't believe in a God, then throw your anger out to the farthest reaches of the universe into a black hole. Let it be sucked up away into nothing where it can harm no one else, including yourself. If you do believe in a God, as a general term, or some higher being, throw your anger towards him. He can handle it.