Losing anger in Love

Anger and its harmful effects are in the news a lot right now. The Bible has helpful instruction on this subject in a number of places, one of which teaches that “human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose” (James 1:20, Good News Translation).

Why is that so? In my experience, the feeling of unchecked anger makes it difficult to pray and listen to the guidance of the Divine.

And God does guide us. God can show us a constructive way forward in all situations. When we are alert to quiet the impulse toward anger and listen for spiritual inspiration, answers come from God that lead us through any difficult situation – on the road, in school, at work, within the family, on the sports field, and in the community.

The New Testament radically reveals God as divine Love. And Christ Jesus taught us to love others with the love of God just as he did – the kind of love that is the direct manifestation of divine Love.

What enables each of us to live consistently with this kind of spiritual love is that we are the creation of divine Love itself. In divine Love there is no anger, there are no destructive qualities. As the creation of divine Love – made in God’s image and likeness, as the Scriptures say – we have no room for anger in our true spiritual identity.

This understanding is a spiritual foundation for overcoming the pull toward unchecked human emotions, which exacerbate rather than resolve challenges. From that standpoint, we can hear God’s guidance toward constructive solutions.

In the garden of Gethsemane, prior to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, the disciples were afraid. Things were not going the way they thought they would. When Peter, one of the disciples, responded to the arrest with violence, Jesus stopped him. He then healed the man Peter had injured and continued on, leaving a powerful example of responding with reflected love in a difficult situation (see Luke 22:49-51 and John 18:10, 11). Jesus clearly knew the sufficiency of divine Love’s power to bring the resolution that was needed, and that angrily taking things into one’s own hands is not useful.

Anger compels us to focus on ourselves and invites a feeling of being separate from God and others. Conversely, lifting thought off of self and onto God orients us toward our connection with God and each other.

As in biblical times, we have plenty we could be hurt by and angry about these days. A helpful question in moments of frustration is not, “Is my anger justified?” The challenge is to set aside that line of thinking and ask instead, in prayer: “Does this anger leave me feeling closer to God?” “Does this anger leave me feeling whole?” And then we can listen, because Christ, the spiritual idea of Love, always answers those questions by showing us what we truly are as God’s, Love’s, expression, as Jesus did.

I remember at one point after a conflict had flared up with someone, asking in prayer, “What just happened?” The message that came was, “It’s the sense of separateness from God in you clashing with the sense of separateness from God in them, and it’s not true about either of you.” The key was remembering that, in truth, I am inseparable from God. Then I was able to take the next step and understand that the other person is also inseparable from God, good. The anger dissipated, and there was a harmonious way forward for both of us.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, speaks about this kind of experience as “when self is lost in Love” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 283). Quieting a personal sense of self and opening oneself to divine Love is not an act of human will. Rather, it is a humble embrace of spiritual truth.

The phrase quoted above comes from a passage that states, “When pride, self, and human reason reign, injustice is rampant.” It continues, “Individuals, as nations, unite harmoniously on the basis of justice, and this is accomplished when self is lost in Love – or God’s own plan of salvation. ‘To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly’ is the standard of Christian Science.”

We can silence anger by prayerfully placing attention on God, divine Love, and understanding ourselves to be the reflection of Love. Expressing the kind of discipleship to which Christ Jesus calls us all frees us from personal complaints and guides us to inspired solutions.