Can God Handle Mine, Yours, Our Anger?
Something I have often thought about and wondered; “Can I be mad at God?” or does being mad at God mean that I am a bad Christian, person, woman, ____ fill in the blank? Or can God handle it, I mean, allow me to be angry with God? I wonder if being in a personal relationship with God means I might get mad and even really enraged with God’s decisions in my life. If I am deepening my understanding with God and my relationship with myself does that means anger is allowed or do I have to sit in shame because I experienced an emotion?
As I sit with clients one word comes to me over and over again- YES!!! I can, no scratch that, WE can ALL be mad at God!! If we are to have a deep enriching relationship with God- the God of your understanding than yes, admit it, you get mad, angry, enraged with God. Why not admit it and experience the emotions in a knowing way?
A couple of quotes that I think will help get this article going are first by Joyce Meyer-“Is all anger sin? No, but some of it is. Even God Himself has righteous anger against sin, injustice, rebellion and pettiness. Anger sometimes serves a useful purpose, so it isn’t necessarily always a sin. Obviously, we’re going to have adverse feelings, or God wouldn’t have needed to provide the fruit of self-control. Just being tempted to do something is not sin. It’s when you don’t resist the temptation, but do it anyway, that it becomes sin.” And second by C. JoyBell C. – “Anger is like flowing water; there’s nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human.”
If you have read previous posts/blogs of mine than you know what I think of sin as- missing the mark (what it literally means), and what that means to me is that you have made a mistake, not that you are bad and deemed as so forever! So, this anger with God can become a sin or a way to miss the mark or is it something we learn from? I like this idea of not holding onto the anger we have, rather letting it go by how water does in a river. Ephesians 4:26-28 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
So how to even acknowledge we have anger with God. Hmmm…well I’m not too stumped! Haha! I think it starts with noticing my breath when God is mentioned. I mean do you have short, hallow, long, or regulated breath? From there go deeper with your awareness; does your chest tighten, or does it stay the same? Does your stomach have a pit, feel butterflies, or stay the same? I wonder if your whole body tenses or do you remain relaxed? After going through bodily sensations, what does your mind do? Does it freeze? Do you want to fight or leave the conversation? Do you have thoughts of past times you felt God has failed you, do your thoughts remind you of good times you felt God was there helping you or do you have mixed thoughts and memories? Then lastly what emotions do you start to have? Anger, happiness, joy, sadness, or does abandonment start to take a front seat?
Well, that was a lot!! And every time you are conscious of your body and slow down you can allow so much information in! Especially what God wants you to learn; those of you who are meditators know that God is there in the silence. So, going back to the original question- “Can I be mad at God” and of course you know my answer- yes! I think the Creator of the Universe can handle it. God made us, and knows us, so why not say it to God- “I am mad at you” and see what happens? Own it! Then you can move on and start being present and relational with God.
So where to go from here? Well, as Psalm 46:10 puts it- He says, “Be still, and know that I am God”.
Sit, have a conversation with God, and more importantly, listen. It is so important to listen. I think that is the key ingredient that is often missed in this whole thing, how do you really know how God feels if you don’t listen to the Creator? If you are trying to have a relationship with someone, something, spirit, etc. then a huge part of it is listening. So why not try it with God? I think you will learn a lot. I especially challenge those Christians out there who have been taught by other humans (who also miss the mark by the way!) to start a honest conversation and see what happens from there, see what it is like to get rid of everyone else’s voices and opinions and start with YOUR honesty!!
