I used to worry about being angry. There’s a verse in Ephesians that reads: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). How would I know when anger went too far and turned into sin? I tried not to be angry.
But when you’re paying attention, it can be hard not to get angry. I was angry when I wasn’t valued at work, when I heard about yet another school shooting, when I found out that a friend’s husband had been abusive. When I looked, I found a lot to inspire anger.
But what if anger could be a call to action? When we see people who are falling through the cracks, the poor and ill in our communities, the ways that our power structures give preferential treatment to those who already have what they need, shouldn’t that make us angry?
In the past, I thought I should remove anger from my life. Now I see anger as a tool God uses to make all things new.
This message is excerpted from “Hope’s beautiful daughters” by Cara Strickland in the September 2019 Gather magazine. Today is the sixth Sunday after Epiphany.
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