Daily Lesson for May 17, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 25 through 27:

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil.

We cannot deny or repress our anger. There are things in the world which make us angry, things which indeed should make us angry. Repressing feelings of anger in the end only results in bitterness and displaced or passive or aggression. No matter how much we might wish to hide it or to hide ourselves from it, eventually anger finds its way to the surface of our lives. 

“Be angry but do not sin,” the Scripture says. We have to deal honestly and another falsely with ourselves and with others. We have to speak the truth about what we think and how things make us feel. We have to allow ourselves the freedom to name our anger and when possible name it publicly.

Dr. King called riots “the language of the unheard”.  A riot is pent up anger released in the form of destructive aggression. It is latent anger finding its way to the surface. We all have a riotous spirit within us, when grievances are left too long addressed. This is the source of much of our blow ups in the home and at work. It’s anger left with no option but to come out as sin. 

A practice: take time today to make a list of grievances — things about which you are angry or frustrated. It may take some time to sit and find these things.  That’s because we’ve been taught to hide them and we do a great job of it up to a point. After taking the time to identify the things that make us angry see if there is anything which might be done today to address one of them. Could we write a letter? Schedule a meeting?  Contact an attorney? Join a movement?

It does no good just to play nice outwardly while we’re seething inside. We are to put away falsehood — that includes the falsehood or pretending that everything is hunky dory. We have to be honest with our neighbors and with ourselves. We have to be honest about our anger and find constructive things to do with it, lest in the end it consume us.