To Vent

or Not to Vent,

That Is the Question

Anger is a powerful emotion. When Satan seizes his opportunity, because we've held some things back from the Lord, thinking we could handle things our way, he beckons it to come through us. Like a mammoth boulder crashing down a mountainside, it can crush everything in its path. When it is allowed to seethe, like the bubbling mud pots in Yellowstone National Park, small, seemingly harmless bursts of steam and gas permeate the days--discoloring the surroundings. Anger is of the flesh. Anger is the devil. But, upon closer analysis, anger is not really anything to get upset about. It is Satan causing us to misinterpret what is really happening. That's all.

Satan trips us up so that we misinterpret something, which then allows that mammoth boulder to crash down the mountainside, destroying everything below. It is merely a twisted view that causes the steam and gasses to burst through our muddy lives and discolor our world.

Mr. Spock, in the old Star Trek series, was always thought of as cold and maybe even heartless. That was the judgment of others in the plot. In his own way, I always felt there was a lot of love in him and his loyalty to the captain could not have been greater. Rarely, however, did you ever see Mr. Spock get angry. Why? Because of his strong sense of logic. He simply did not feel anger was a pragmatic approach to whatever problem was besetting him, in each episode. He would rather spend his energies finding a solution. He would rather spend his time solving the problem.

Is it possible we could receive a mind-meld by Mr. Spock, the next time we feel we are attacked and maybe his logical mind could help us "reason" our way through it? Just joking! Actually we don't need to imagine a “mind meld” with Mr. Spock, when we can have the mind of Christ. Jesus is the ultimate picture of calm and cool collectedness in the face of impending doom. He slept in the sea-tossed boat in the midst of a raging storm. When the fearful disciples woke Him, He merely told the storm and seas, “Peace, be still.” No crisis there!

Anger is often just a reaction to fear. We are not victims. Hard as it may seem, there is no time when anger comes upon us without our permission. Yes, anger is a choice. A choice we are making to focus on the deceiver instead of on the Lord. Once we realize we have chosen to become angry, it is easy to not choose that as an option the next time. The key, however, is not to try to suppress it once the choice was made. Suppressing anger merely puts us in denial and causes other problems later. Suppressing anger is like trying to put a cork in a volcano. For a while, things will appear to simmer down but then BAM! Our whole world blows up like Mt. Saint Helen all over again. It's best to never let anger kindle.

Here is some advice on how to keep anger from poisoning our mind, our environment, indeed, our whole world. We must recognize what is happening when there appears to be no other reaction we can have to a circumstance. Satan has restricted our mind, he has it in a headlock and won't let go. Our Lord, dwelling within, would ask us to take a deep breath and ask Him to show the situation to you. Tell Him you want to see things through His eyes, not your own. Jesus will tell you that it is not an attack against you that is taking place. It is, in fact, a call for love. Ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance instead of arrogantly thinking you can handle it. Stop and allow what, at first, appears to be the quiet, gentle and faint voice of God to speak. That voice is the Voice of God. It is as loud as our willingness to hear Him. If kindness and gentleness and love is barely heard within us, then perhaps it is time to change our frequency. Maybe we can tune Satan's angry, stomping, mad and tantrumming voice out and listen to God's Voice for a while. Even in this world, it is possible, you know. We can choose Him instead of making a knee-jerk choice toward Satan. It is our right to choose. Indeed, it is our duty to choose and if the choice is with God, there will be no bitter aftertaste.

There is a point just before the anger comes when the mind-meld with Spock would be the most helpful. It is just after the perception of the event but just before that angry boulder is asked to come rolling down the mountainside of our life. It is then that the Holy Spirit can curb the process. It is then that a discussion of how to vent the anger becomes unnecessary. It is then that what was to become anger merely dissipates in the wind. It is then that instead of a huge boulder of anger rolling down and onto everything, a pile of feathers and dust particles are blown away by the Breath of the Holy Spirit. Nothing had to be vented because nothing developed. Do you believe that God has that much power? Do you believe that it is possible to choose not to be angry in the first place? Praise God that our mind is indeed quite capable of choosing God's response instead of one that pleases Satan. Praise God that there is nothing on this earth that merits one tiny trickle of anger from us. Praise God that no matter what happens, we can be saved from this "misinterpretation" once and for all but only with the Holy Spirit's help. Trying to handle it all ourselves results in Satan's unrestrained malevolence.

And what is it that occurs when that monster boulder of anger is perched ominously on the upper ledge of our mind? Say someone hits us, slams us with words that, like arrows, pierce our hearts and make us begin to feel...attacked. What will you do? If the button is pushed, the boulder will fall. How do we recognize a call for love? That is the question that needs to be asked of the Holy Spirit AT THE POINT OF ANGER. Not before and not after but exactly at the point that anger is about to begin. Why then? The motivation is there and if the motivation is there, success in handing it over to Holy Spirit will be likely.

Remember, when there appears to be a reason to be angry, what we think is happening, isn't. The challenge is in getting a handle on it BEFORE our mind completes its misinterpretation. It is difficult to see the forest for the trees. We get so wrapped up in appearances, we need the Holy Spirit to show us a different picture. But He can't unless we make room for Him. Once our mind is made up to be angry, there is no room for Him. We need to give it over to the Holy Spirit before we give it to that angry boulder-shoving Satan. Just knowing it is possible can help.  

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