Anger is a strange thing.

[Joy]

Anne with an E was a drama queen.

[temporal1]

Anne with an E was a drama queen.

she was.
but a sweet imaginitive one with a good heart. one loved by Matthew and Marilla.

i’m trying to survive one without much indication of any heart at all. see “anger” in the OP.
will her willfulness ever give way to admit grief and let it happen? talkin’ decades of anger with this one.
Gomer level anger, willfulness. it’s painful to witness. challenging to love. year after year.

thus, “complicated grief!” sigh. i hope to work on that.

[temporal1]

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered?
About something important, about something real?”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

[temporal1]

[temporal1]

i began this topic in 2019.
the situation wasn’t new, it’s 2023, it’s not over. sin causes untold pain. there is a feeling of helplessness ..

altho not Catholic, i’ve often wondered, “is this purgatory?”
an exotic, foreign question for me.

recently, i’ve descended into wondering about exorcisms. i’ve viewed a couple of tapes shared by Catholic exorcists.
desparate prayers.

one person’s deep contempt (altho remarkably well hidden in superficial displays of happiness, beauty, success) is hurting so many.
outward appearances of “all is well” are not new, technology magnifies age-old duplicity.

Page 1:

I never heard it called exorcisms either. “Casting our demons” would be the usual term.

Josh may be right. exorcisms may be a Catholic term for the same thing.

sometimes life is just hard. watching loved ones struggle in sin (in this case, anger+contempt) is among the most painful experiences. first, their pain, then the destruction that follows. innocents harmed. years+years pass. it doesn’t seem possible on a practical level.

sin is such a liar.

[temporal1]

Recently, in the Prayer thread:

Page 47:

Two requests for prayer:
.. .. Pray for someone who is in the grasp of Satan that she may escape and come out of the Sodom and Gomorrah which holds her.
May she be awakened as was Paul on the road to Damascus.
Thank you, bretheren.

i don’t know anything more about this than these words.
this strikes me as the same: the wages of sin.

i don’t believe (most) sinners realize how much pain+damage to others results. i don’t believe they are primarily sadistic.
they are caught up in self+temptation. often later, when their eyes are open, they see it and experience remorse.

there are those who aim to hurt others. that’s a different pathology.

Outsider referred to Paul.
i often think of sinful Gomer, how God won her over, and Hosea’s faithful longsuffering ~ in devotion to God.
and Moses’ 40 years in the desert.

40 years!
as a young person i felt this was extreme-extreme. at this age, i see it’s something that happens.

[temporal1]

Speaking of Gomer! - mike shared this somewhere:

Song of Gomer

Song Of Gomer lyrics
by Michael Card

Don't know what he sees in me
He is spirit, he is free
And I, the wife of adultery
Gomer is my name.
Simply more than I can see
How he keeps on forgiving me;
How he keeps his sanity
Hosea, you're a fool.

Chorus:
A fool to love someone like me,
A fool to suffer silently;
Though sometimes through your eyes I see
I'd rather be a fool.

The fondness of a father,
The passion of a child;
The tenderness of a loving friend
An understanding smile.
All of this and so much more,
You've lavished on a faithless whore
I've never known love like this before
Hosea, you're a fool.

Chorus:
A fool to love someone like me,
A fool to suffer silently;
Though sometimes through your eyes I see
I'd rather be a fool.

Bridge:
This God of yours would not have told
To lift a love that you couldn't hold;
And though time and time again I flee,
I'm always glad to see you coming after me!

Simply more than I can see,
How he keeps on forgiving me
The wife of adultery;
Gomer is my name.
http://www.christian-lyrics.net/michael ... yrics.html

[Bootstrap]

Lately I have had anger & I'm even angrier that I have it. The Bible says " be angry & sin not". Looking at the diagram I can recognize a couple, perhaps a few of things below the surface that could be contributing.

My approach in the last several decades is to let the Scriptures form my perspective, & be a mirror- yet lately anger keeps rising above the surface- addressing the underlying causes takes facing those and giving them over to God through prayer, His Word, & perhaps seeking a Godly counselor to walk through the issues. Thanks for sharing-

I have been reading and thinking about anger and emotions.

Hot anger, instant anger, impulsive anger ... that's bad stuff. And I think that the Internet and politics trains us to be like Pavlov's dogs, a name is mentioned, we respond with the emotion that we have been trained to respond with. The kind of anger that wants to burn down and destroy ... that's bad stuff. The kind of anger that dehumanizes others and says they have no value ... that's bad stuff.

I think there's a right way to use anger. Anger is a signal that tells us something is wrong and needs to be fixed. That signal may be true or false - there are a lot of falsehoods on the Internet, designed to keep us angry and clicking to maximize engagement and profits. Or to keep us angry and polarized to vote for a political party. Or it may be true. Some things are just plain wrong.

Is this anger helping me seek first the Kingdom of God? Or does it draw my engagement into other directions?

To me, a wise response to anger starts by asking if it's even an issue that I should be engaging with. As a Christian, what do I want my life to revolve around? I think reconciling love, loving God first and neighbor second, my own righteousness and righteousness in my church, knowing Scripture, asking what God is calling me to, my family and church and friends, my work colleagues ... those are things I have responsibility for, those are places where I can use anger to identify problems and seek what is right.

Is this anger based in truth?

In many controversies that causes anger in a family or church setting, the anger may be caused by a misunderstanding or even a lie. A lie might be covering up some other wrongdoing - for instance, in sex abuse scandals, it's not unusual for the perpetrator to make up vicious lies about others and get people angry at them, which covers up the perpetrator's wrongdoing. Anger and fear are two of the go-to strategies for people who want to deceive. So a wise approach to anger steps back and checks the facts before leaping into action.

What is a right response to this anger?

If my anger is about the things that Jesus cared about, in an area where I can actually do something, my anger usually means that wisdom is called for. Even if I am acting to protect others who need protection, I think a wise approach to anger means asking others to help me discern the best way to address the issue. A wise approach to anger is a pastoral approach to anger.

So ... anger can be a good way to get our attention. But once it has gotten our attention, a lot of reflective, prayerful discernment is called for.

[temporal1]

Yes. There are different kinds of anger, some anger can be righteous anger that results in God’s glory.
Perceptions of anger vary, too, believers internalize and aim to understand their own anger, and anger of others (including God’s anger) through the lens of faith and serving God, also, of repenting of sin.

What i’m struggling with in this topic is unrepentant anger (and contempt) that runs deeply, last for years, becomes a hardened heart problem, even including altogether turning away from God.

i think of questions of “the unforgivable sin.”
Quite a lot is written on it. Even with what i’ve read, i do not feel “solid” in my understanding. One example:

In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus declares, “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.”

Often, Christians worry about whether they have committed this unforgivable sin unknowingly, particularly because this verse does not do much to clarify the nature of the transgression.

This quandary provides a prime example of why it’s so important to read Scripture in context:
the immediately preceding discussion between Yeshua and the Pharisees shows that the unforgivable sin is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to the work of Satan. .. ..

“What is the Unforgivable Sin?”
https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/wh ... vable-sin/

It seems, there is sin, all sin lies+harms; and there is SIN (that is deliberate, persistent, that runs deep, that is defiant against God).
The latter refers to “hardening of hearts.” It’s deep. It’s worse-than.

Which confuses, because Jesus gave us the important notion that “sin is sin.”

My grief is that for those with hardened hearts, asking fair questions about their hearts, won’t go anywhere.
Deep anger and contempt. Nursing contempt as a way of life. Unwillingness to consider retiring it. It’s possible, there could be a FEAR of letting it go, old habits run deep. Bad habits can be comfortable in their own way. Unwillingness, or inability to see the damage it does to others, the closer they are, the worse the damage. Innocent loved ones are harmed.

Ignored, ‘cause it’s too painful to admit.
At the core, pain is what it’s all about. Like the OP graphic:


Life IS painful. God uses pain to draw us closer to Him.
Some run away in anger. Some remain in anger for years and years. Anger at God.

When what is needed is submission and obedience.

[temporal1]

i continue to ruminate on the pathology/disambiguation of anger.

In this talk, Dr Carter fairly intertwines hate with anger.

DR LES CARTER / Why Do Narcissists Hate? / 13min

Description:
Like it or not, each person has moments of determining what to do with the feeling of hatred.

Healthy people accept that the emotion exists, but they don't allow themselves to be defined by it.

Dr. Les Carter explains that narcissists have so much to "gain" by this emotions that it ultimately eats away at the potential for an effective life.

It can be a trap.