⚡Anger: We give our fire to You.

Year of Breath: For when sad looks like mad.

Are you angry? I am. I’m angry every single day.

(I’m joyful, grateful, and content, too. But we’re not talking about that today.)

Today, we’re talking about the anger we hold.

So, let’s take a minute to be honest with each other. (And if not with me, with yourself.)

How are you doing, really?

When you turn off the noise, is this the world you dreamed of when you were a child? Is this the world you imagined when you held your baby for the first time, counting their eyelashes and touching their downy cheeks?

I’ll be honest: I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I read the news and want to scream. I see another headline and feel a tiny rumble of rage in my ribcage.

We aren’t supposed to admit that, are we?

Somehow, we got the notion that good Christians smile and put some holy spin on the news of the world and grief of our lives and don’t let the pain touch our bones. The most sanctified among us don’t let the fear for their children, for their future, seep into their souls because they are much too pious for that.

But is it really of God to stop caring? To numb ourselves from the pain or live in the blissdom of ignorance?

How am I supposed to raise my babies in this world? How are you?

We know there is hope in today and hope in forever. We know we live in the realm of now and not-yets. We can count every season sacred and scream into the void of a world not as it should be.

Morgan Harper Nichols writes this: “We have to open up. We have to exhale. And to do this, we need empathy. We need spaces where people are reminded daily that they are free to feel into the hurt, anger, and grief they’ve been forced to keep under wraps.”

What would it look like to feel into the anger you’ve been forced to keep under wraps?

I don’t think Jesus is afraid of our anger, whether the anger flows from the righteous or the most flawed parts of ourselves.

We have a God that knows our humanity and loves us through it.

What do you think?

Prayer for the Anger We Hold

From To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies.

God, we are angry.

We are tired and frustrated with the world,

With others, and even with ourselves.

Help us know when to flip tables

And when to step away and limp to You.

Like a loving parent,

You welcome us into Your arms.

We scream and beat our fists into Your chest,

And still You hold us,

Your love stretched wide and tight around us.

O God, if sad looks like mad,

We are weeping under every scream.

And sometimes this current flows into our homes

And onto those we love, even our children.

Help us discern righteous anger

From our own personal rage,

So that our anger will teach us

But not control us.

Help us acknowledge our anger

But not dwell in it,

So that our anger will lead us

Into healing instead of into harm.

Give us wisdom and peace, O God,

As we give our fire to You.

Borrow These Words

“Jesus’s tears were shed onto the hardened ground of Bethany, evaporated, and are still with us. We breathe in his tears every day. I’d like to imagine that these tears, because they are the tears of the Son of God, multiplied, just like the fishes and the loaves, and embedded themselves into the fabric of the atmosphere. Our tears need to comingle with Jesus’s tears. It is right for us to be troubled deeply with the broken realities of the world around us. We need to stand in the pit of Ground Zero and breathe in Jesus’s tears. Then we can create. Do not let anger overtake you in despair. Let your tears lead to your small resurrections.”

Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making