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The Angry

Feeling or showing strong annoyance, displeasure, or hostility

Intro

The Top Ten - things that make people irrationally angry

Not to be taken too seriously but these will make your blood boil:

10. Queue jumpers

09. Someone hovering at your shoulder when you’re working 

08. People blocking a pavement by walking very slowly

07. Misuse of apostrophes

06. Customer service phone line menu mazes 

05. Drivers not using their indicators 

04. People who don’t say thank you when you let them through

03. Buffering and software updates

02. Being told to ‘calm down’ or ‘cheer up’ when I am calm and happy

01. People chewing their food loudly

What is it that triggers you?

The Angry – what we’re talking about:

What is it that makes you angry? Like Hulk level angry? Is it ok to get angry and let it flow out? It there a time for anger in our lives and how should it be expressed? 

So, part of the reason for including this is just to create some conversation about anger and not let it sit, deep under layers of ‘politeness’ and pretend we don’t get angry at stuff and explode when people are not about. 

Maybe it’s the car for you and road rage and if your family or friends could have seen the stuff you’ve done and said on the road they would be horrified.

There will be loads of triggers in us that cause anger to boil over, and we mustn’t make excuses for anger that is clearly unacceptable, irrational and without a justifiable cause or reason. 

Part of living as a Christian man means a continual theme of being a man of peace. That doesn’t mean you will never feel anger or find yourself in a situation that most logical people would assess and deem anger to be an appropriate response. However, peace and trying to live life as a man of peace is what we believe God calls us to do.

One-man modelled peace in the most amazing ways; he didn’t fight back when he could have, he healed a guy’s ear when one of his friends defended him and cut the attacker’s ear off. He avoided hostile moments and tried to navigate around them. However, he also demonstrated anger at a bunch of con men and traders who deeply disrespected his father. With a whip he drove them from their markets and trading booths, turning over tables. This wasn’t done with a smile and a wink, it was done through a moment of correctly placed and measured anger. 

I think the truth is there are lots of angry men out there, and maybe you are one of them. You will know it if it’s you. A deep feeling of anger that hasn’t been brought to the light of peace. It is deep, you let it roam around down there in your life and it pops up in different moments and might even surprise you and those around at how powerful it can be. 

That anger needs to be displaced and dislodged. It’s a very different animal to the model I have given of a man of peace, who controls his life but can respond angrily to the right moments of injustice and chaos he sees in the world. Living with a deep root of anger in our hearts will destroy us, and people around us. So many times, the Hulk’s anger caused him to be an outcast because it’s the ones closest that get hurt in the tornado of pain that anger produces. The truth is it was Dr. Banner that needed to be a man of peace; it was his heart and mind that triggered the Hulk to take over. 

Action:

What are some of the ways that anger has been one of your travelling companions? What does it look like when it arrives? What triggers it and how might you start to deal with it? Are you angry at God? Does it feel like he has let you down? You can take all of this to Jesus in prayer, he can take it! 

Reflect on these words from Ephesians 4:26 “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