Is My Anger Righteous?

This has been such a heavy year, and it isn’t surprising that a lot of emotions are running high, especially anger. I’ve seen it swirling everywhere, and my own heart is certainly no exception. I’ve often even found myself getting angry about anger. Is any of this anger “righteous” though, and does “righteous” anger even exist? 

As much as it’s tempting to think the opposite is true, I can’t really know the hearts of others; I can only know my own. I may feel like I know the reason someone is making the choices they are and reaching the conclusions they have, but I don’t. I can’t. I don’t know their lives. I don’t know their reasoning. I don’t know their wounds. I’m not their spiritual authority. I’ve been trying to focus on my own heart and take it to the Lord to try to figure out what love and wisdom look like and if anger has a place in my spiritual health right now. I’ve found it’s helpful when I feel anger stirring in my heart to hold that anger up to the scrutiny of these questions, so I thought I’d share them in case others are struggling spiritually with anger as well:

Am I angry because of an opinion I have?

If yes, what is that opinion rooted in? Is it love and actual care and concern for others, or is it rooted in my own (or someone who is stoking this anger’s) take on something?

Is this anger keeping me from seeing Christ in someone?

Is this anger fueling my pride?

Am I embracing a view that’s hardening my heart?

Is this anger a defensive reflex stemming from me being guilty of what I’m inwardly accusing someone else of?

Is there a more merciful and gracious view I could be choosing instead? 

What is the likely fruit of this anger? 

Is it possible this anger will help lead to real injustices being addressed or stopped, or is it just leading to division and pettiness?

What do people who are spiritual authorities in my life say about this anger?

Some of these questions have been hard to answer. Pride is a very sneaky sin, and it can convince me of my own rightness and the wrongness of others very easily. While it is right and good to be angered over injustice, I’ve observed a stark difference in myself between that anger response rooted in holy grieving on behalf of victims of injustice and in things that are just simply maddening to me. I want to cultivate a habit of being honest before the Lord (and my spiritual fathers and mothers) about my anger but ultimately allow myself to be malleable to be guided towards truth and goodness. My natural inclination is not towards those things; left unchecked, my pride will run rampant and blind me to the log in my own eye (Matthew 7:3-5). My husband and I keep coming back to Micah 6:8 this year, and I think it’s such a powerful verse that’s so incredibly helpful in guiding us towards Christlikeness and wisdom if we allow it: “…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Even as I was writing this, I briefly logged on to social media and saw a post of someone calling those who have other political views than they do “evil.” I felt that very familiar anger that makes me want to dismiss people created in God’s Image and leads me down a path of pride that makes me start to divide people into categories of “good” and “bad”⎯the very thing I’m angry about someone doing! Is this anger based on an opinion? Yes. Is it rooted in love or my own take on something? My own take. Is this anger keeping me from seeing Christ in someone? Yes. Is this anger fueling my pride? Yes. Am I embracing a view that’s hardening my heart? Yes, all while inwardly accusing someone else of doing that very thing. Is there a more merciful and gracious view I could be choosing? Absolutely, and it’s certainly the one I’m being called to, even though it doesn’t feel as satisfying as my pride and judgement of those I don’t agree with. What is the likely fruit of this anger? Certainly not an end to any injustice! The likely fruit is division and pettiness, and those are not fruits I want to allow to grow in my life. What do spiritual authorities in my life say about this anger? My confessor has encouraged me in previous confessions not to give in to this kind of anger but to recognize it for what it is: a passion that feeds my pride and keeps me from seeing Christ in others. I’m thankful for his wisdom and know I can trust it and should apply it now. 

I have a choice to make every time I’m confronted with this type of anger: do I want my faith to be a justification for my own views and comfortable life, or do I want my faith to transform every part of me and fill me with the love of God that animated the lives of the saints I love and read about and aspire to emulate? I wish I could say that I make the correct choice most often, but I can’t. If I want to make that choice that opens my life up to that transformation, I have to constantly submit my feelings, thoughts, reactions, opinions, comfort, and desire to be right to the God Who is ever present and constantly inviting me to walk with Him. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, and strengthen me to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with You.