ANGER BY DEFAULT

ANGER a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time researching the subject of ANGER before understanding that worldwide, this emotion is growing amongst the population. Having a positive and patient temperament has eroded over the years as discontentment and the overwhelming need to be heard, has overtaken our emotional maturity. Just turn on the television, listen to a podcast, read a newspaper or blog, or even look within yourself to see that ANGER is real and can now be an everyday part of our lives.

**A recent study done in 2018 in the United States says:

“Asked about their feelings the previous day, the majority of Americans (55%) in 2018 said they had experienced stress during a lot of the day, nearly half (45%) said they felt worried a lot and more than one in five (22%) said they felt anger a lot.”

Each of these figures matches or tops previous highs in the U.S. and reveals that Americans are more likely to be stressed, worried, and angry, than much of the world.

Of course, there are a million things than can influence our emotions to a place of being annoyed, displeased, unheard, and then hostile. But there’s only ONE reason for why we act out in ANGER…and that’s the choice we make to do so. It’s up to us.

So why do we make the choice to be ANGRY so often?

Simple…because it’s easy.

Think about it. When we act out in ANGER, we can be explosive. We can be loud. We can get a massive amount of words out in a short time frame. It’s much harder to be patient and kind than it is to be upset and ticked off. We’ll do almost anything to feel RIGHT…at least in the moment.

But here’s the thing. Anger does a lot more damage than we even realize sometimes.

I remember when I was in middle school, a couple of my friends and I would play 3 on 3 basketball against some older guys before school every morning. We played on the courts outside of our campus and these older guys would usually beat us, though after a few weeks, we kept our games pretty close.

One morning we were having a particularly intense and close game and the winning shot came down to whichever team made the last goal. After a lot of passing and dribbling…the older guys scored and my team lost the game. In that moment, I got so ANGRY and heated, that I chose to take the basketball and drop kick it across the school yard.

The problem was, the ball didn’t fly across the school yard when I kicked it. Instead it made a fast and direct path for the pole that the basketball goal was attached to. Once the ball made contact with the pole, it bounced off (seeming to gain even more speed if that’s possible) and came back on a direct path towards my head. Needless to say, I didn’t act like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix movie and dodge the ball. Nope, that ball hit me right between the eyes and sent me flying on my back in a ball of pain and humiliation.

Do you see where I’m going with this story?

The greatest damage caused by our ANGER, is the damage we cause to ourselves in the process.

When we choose to let ANGER overtake us, we willingly sacrifice our character, morality, judgement, and trustworthiness. And while these things can most certainly be redeemed in us with time, if we choose to continue to give into our ANGER, the easier it will be to keep making the sacrifices that make us less of who we really are.

Try and remember that picture of me kicking the basketball into the pole and it coming back and hitting me in the head. In the moment, when I was most ANGRY, acting out felt good. But as soon as that basketball hit me…I felt nothing but pain, humiliation, and really ignorant.

If you take your ANGER too far…you’ll most likely find yourself feeling the same things when it backfires on you.

Is losing control of your ANGER worth it?

You decide.

“So turn from anger. Don’t rage, and don’t worry – these ways frame the doorway to evil.”

--Psalm 37:8 (VOICE)

**Ray, Julie. “Americans' Stress, Worry and Anger Intensified in 2018.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 17 Oct. 2019, https://news.gallup.com/poll/249098/americans-stress-worry-anger-intensified-2018.aspx.