Anger

by Erik Carlson

This past Wednesday, I was consumed by feelings of anger. It was personally a tough day for me. I honestly don’t know if anger completely grasps what I was feeling, maybe the word furious might be better, but at its core, the feeling was anger. The Bible has a lot to say about anger:

• “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” Ephesians 4:26
• “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” Psalm 37:8
• “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” James 1:20
• “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” James 1:19.

Reading these verses and many more in the Bible, it is quite clear; anger is definitely an issue for God’s people. Me being one of God’s children was full of it on Wednesday.

Fortunately for me, having the opportunity to meet with my students on Wednesday evening through our zoom sessions gave me peace. Seeing so many beautiful faces eager to say hello to one another and talk about God, may have been about the only thing that was going to calm me down. We talked about Moses with the 5^th graders, the Ten Commandments with my 7^th grade confirmation small group, and had our virtual shake night with the high schoolers, where we talked about highs, lows, and how God has been working in our life.

At the end of each session, the thing that really helped me to calm down was our prayer time. I would ask each group if there were any prayer requests, and we would then pray. Being with my students helped to start the calming of my very frayed nerves, but the prayer time really took my anger away from me. It is such an amazing gift that we are able to talk to our God, The Great Creator and know that he is listening. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26.

I am sure I was not saying all of the correct words or even giving all that much coherent words to how and what I was feeling, but God heard and helped to calm me down and let me release my anger. I hope that when you find yourself in times of great anger and resentment, look to God in prayer to help calm yourself.

In peace,

Erik Carlson

Student Life Coach

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