The danger of anger

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13).

People can be so aggravating. Some years ago, I paid a lot of money for professional service. I had to wait more than half an hour for my appointment to begin, I had to wait several months for the service to be rendered, and when the work was finally completed I found that a serious mistake had been made. When I called about the problem, I was assured that things would be taken care of immediately. Still, I was angry—I couldn't resist making a snippy remark to show my displeasure. In response, the person I was talking to ended the call without offering an apology or wishing me a nice day before hanging up.

I’m sure that you’ve been frustrated by poor service at one time or another; maybe you displayed your anger like I did. Did you feel guilty afterwards? I did. My behavior did not make me feel better, and while it may have fixed the problem, it ruined another person’s day as well.

Anger is a dangerous tool to use. Sometimes it takes strong emotion to make another person take you seriously—but using anger can backfire too. Yell at the wrong person, and instead of backing down he might seek revenge instead. Treat your spouse with enough hostility and you’ll find yourself in divorce court.

Anger is the kind of negative emotion that begs to be shared. And it can spread like ripples on a pond—the person you get mad at takes out their frustration on somebody else, and pretty soon your impulsive words darken the day for a whole bunch of people, most of whom you don’t even know.

The Bible says, bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. I know that over the years I’ve made lots of people angry with my failures and my mistakes. I’m no better than anyone else; I have no right to use anger to force change unless all other options have been exhausted. That is how God deals with us—He only shows His anger when nothing else works to get our attention. The LORD prefers to deal with us in love; that should be our preference as well.