Can you be both angry and a Christian? Yes, Yes you can in case you were wondering. The trick to this question is not whether or not you can be angry- it is good to feel your feelings and validate them. The trick is- who are you directing your anger towards and in what ways? Being angry or having feelings of anger is not bad and in fact can be very useful but it is how we handle that anger that we want to address.

I am a pretty passionate person and I can anger easily. I also see this in my 2 year old. This makes more sense to see in my two year old than me because they don’t yet have the skills to regulate their emotions- me, unfortantley no excuse. When I see Sophie get angry though, it does remind me how natural and easy it is to feel angry when something isn’t working the way you want it to, or you aren’t able to get what you want or something seems unfair. Things going differently than you planned, not getting what you want, feeling like life is unfair are all common and normal experiences and so it makes sense we feel anger. I remember meeting people in college who were taught that to feel anger was a sin- we shouldn’t be angry. I think whoever taught them that meant to teach them that the way they express that anger could have harmful effects and that is why we want to be in control of our anger.

I mean we see people angry in the bible all the time. Some who are doing a poor job of handling their anger in a positive and healthy way and some that are doing a good job of it. We see Elijah in first kings who is so angry he tells God he wants to die- and he yells out to God about his anger. What does God do? He tells Elijah to take a nap and eat a snack and wah-lah- Elijah has regulated his emotions and the scripture tells us he was good to go for the next 40 days. In this instance, Elijah in my opinion is dealing with anger in a healthy way. He is letting it out which is necessary and he is doing it through prayer ( talking to God) and not by taking it out on anyone else. He follows advice of sleeping and eating, probably recognizing his anger is making him not super rational. And then he feels better.

God gets angry and God created us in his image so God knows we wil be angry. I think God wants to help us figure out how to deal with that anger in a way that will not harm ourselves or others. So I say, be angry. You can be angry that injustices are happening- that people are being killed. That violence runs rampant in our society, that there is racism and homophobia and systemic poverty and animal cruelty. Unfortunately there is no shortage of things to be angry about. So be angry.

I think God would say be angry BUT use the anger for good. Channel it into a righteous anger. Use it to give you purpose, focus your passion, encourage you to create change and rally around a cause. Use it to ask questions you’ve been too scared to ask, to get answers you deserve. Use it to create justice and peace.

I think God would also say that we should ask ourselves, what’s beneath the anger? Many times, anger is a cover-up emotion- there is an emotion below the anger. Anger for a lot of us is an easier emotion to feel than sadness or rejection or shame. So if you find that letting your anger out in a healthy way or channeling it in good ways still leaves you with anger, maybe start looking at what’s beneath the anger. For me, the emotion underneath the anger is usually sadness. Sadness that the world is so broken and unfair and unjust. Sometimes it’s also fear- fear that I can’t control my life and the outcomes. When I come to terms with these things is when I realize I need to just sit with that sadness and fear and remember that feeling those things is what it feels like to be human.