“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.”
Psalms 22:1-2 NLT
Anger is so appropriate after denial, isn’t it? Facing the injustice of death of a loved one or an end to a situation we thought we could count on forever. Rage begins to bubble for various reasons when we realize that the loss is irreversible. We start thinking of how unfair it all is, what we would’ve done differently had we had the chance. That sinking feeling that however our last moments were spent with that person we will not have another chance for a do-over.
The key for me in this stage of grief is to get it out by writing in my ugly journal. Yes that’s a real thing. I have a journal that my pen has gouged through, scratch marks that looks like a crime scene as well as my most unedited thoughts.. While other pages have words that would be rated with parental advisory in them. This journal is not for anyone but God and me. God, already knowing and understanding my pain, my frustration, my tear stained pages, He is the only one that gets the “why” behind my anger. He is the only One of whom I can trust in my own fragility to get me on through to other side.
Anger is normal. What is not normal or healthy is to let it live inside of you. If we allow anger to live inside of us, it will grow and it will slowly move every other necessary emotion out of us until we can’t process in love.
If you struggle with anger, get help to learn how to undo it’s damage to yourself and the ones living around you. Once someone is gone, through death or loss, or a season with them is over, our responsibility from here on out is to take care of our health and well-being as well as the people still with us. It doesn’t mean that we forget the person we lost. What it means is we find gratitude for the time we did have with them. Resting on anger for too long will not only destroy our current relationships but will destroy us too.
Lord, help us process our anger in a healthy way and show us how to get on the other side of it. We might wrestle with it more than once on this journey, but Lord, we don’t want it to consume us and the relationships we still have. Amen.
“Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.”
Ephesians 4:26-27 MSG
#jointhejourney #writer #journey #author #khoward #k4gsus #beautifullybroken #nobodymakesitoutalive #devotional #seizetheday #week3 #grief #anger
From the Depths of Kell 