“All of us can learn much about processing our anger more effectively.”- Gary Chapman
Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages originally wrote Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion in 1999. Previous title- The Other Side of Love. In the Introduction (“Our Angry World”) of Anger, Mr. Chapman clearly states that many of us have issues with anger. In addition, Christians often get confused about this powerful, complex emotion.
However, Gary observes, most articles/books written about anger fail to deal with the origin and purpose of anger. Therefore, Mr. Chapman describes the connection between these two fundamental aspects of anger:
“Understanding the origin of anger is essential to understanding the purpose of anger, and understanding the purpose of anger is essential to learning how to process anger in a constructive manner.”
Most Christian literature on anger focuses on the issue of control. Gary believes we must clearly understand the source of anger first. As a result, efforts at controlling anger will be much more effective.
Gary attempts to delineate insights and techniques many people use to discover a better way to processing anger. Most significantly, Christ is essential to processing our anger:
“When we bring our anger under the lordship of Christ- when we learn from a holy God about the origin and purpose of anger- we can heal our relationships. Most important, we can accomplish God’s good purposes.”
Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, how effective have you been in processing your anger? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A cluster of emotions”
