Nooma 016|Store"We all get angry about things from time to time -- some of us more often than others. For some of us, it feels like we're constantly on the brink of losing it, where it doesn't take much to get angry about anything. And this kind of anger can be seen everywhere we go -- at work, in traffic, at the store, at home. But what is really at its the root? Anger is often looked at as a bad thing, but are there things actually worth getting angry about? Maybe if we had a better understanding of our anger and where it comes from, we could learn how to channel it towards something constructive -- something that's bigger than ourselves." NOOMAtube
Wow, this one hit pretty close to home for me. I feel like sometimes the guy who gets upset in traffic or in the grocery store is me. I mean I have a little more self control over the actions that my fingers do, but that anger and that rage still boils up. Just this morning I was in the right lane getting ready to exit onto 394 from hwy 169 when a car that was coming onto 169 accelerated when I accelerated and decelerated when I decelerated, ultimately blocking me from exiting where I needed to exit. I knew that I could just get off on Cedar Lake Rd. (the next exit) and would have only lost about 30 seconds, but I still waved my arms and muttered under my breath. Why couldn't she have yielded to me? Why did she have to be so dumb? I like the way that Rob titled this type of anger as, "low grade boiling rage that people carry around with them everywhere they go." This situation did not necessarily warrant this level of anger, but I still flipped out. Over something stupid, over something that I cannot change no matter how much I yelled or how dirty of a look I gave her.
"Anger is simply an emotion. It's just your body's way of telling you that your will has been blocked. What you want to happen isn't happening. The problem isn't anger; the problem is what we do with it. It's where we take it. It's where we go with it. The question is, why am I angry? Because my anger is going to lead somewhere." A cool idea that Rob took from this anger was that we need to listen to our anger because God may be using it to get our attention. When we think about what God may or may not be calling us to do, all to often we make a list of things we love and go from there to follow our calling. But maybe we are looking at this on the opposite side of the spectrum. Maybe the things that anger us are the things that we are most passionate about, maybe this "low grade boiling rage" is God's way of directing us to what we are supposed to do to change the world. "Some people are always looking for a fight because they are not in one...We need to embrace the simple truth that we were made to give ourselves to a cause bigger than ourselves...a cause that increases the peace in the world...a cause, a purpose, a task that makes the world a better place."
Rob's final words will be a prayer that I pray for myself from this day forward..."May you become aware of your anger. May you learn to channel it, to focus it, direct it into something beautiful. And may it fuel sacred acts of healing and restoration."
Assess your anger, find the deeper meaning behind it.
"Anger is simply an emotion. It's just your body's way of telling you that your will has been blocked. What you want to happen isn't happening. The problem isn't anger; the problem is what we do with it. It's where we take it. It's where we go with it. The question is, why am I angry? Because my anger is going to lead somewhere." A cool idea that Rob took from this anger was that we need to listen to our anger because God may be using it to get our attention. When we think about what God may or may not be calling us to do, all to often we make a list of things we love and go from there to follow our calling. But maybe we are looking at this on the opposite side of the spectrum. Maybe the things that anger us are the things that we are most passionate about, maybe this "low grade boiling rage" is God's way of directing us to what we are supposed to do to change the world. "Some people are always looking for a fight because they are not in one...We need to embrace the simple truth that we were made to give ourselves to a cause bigger than ourselves...a cause that increases the peace in the world...a cause, a purpose, a task that makes the world a better place."
Rob's final words will be a prayer that I pray for myself from this day forward..."May you become aware of your anger. May you learn to channel it, to focus it, direct it into something beautiful. And may it fuel sacred acts of healing and restoration."
Assess your anger, find the deeper meaning behind it.
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