Anger: A Secondary Emotion

Anger is interesting. It is a secondary emotion. Unlike the Incredible Hulk (who is always angry), the average person only experiences anger as a result of primary things such as fear, lack of control, or injustice. And things such as fear, lack of control, and feelings of injustice manifest themselves in our lives when our idols are attacked, when we are spiritually abused, when we have unrealistic expectations, when the powerful exploit, when we give in to victimhood, etc. Think of anger as a visible indicator of more primary feelings resulting from any number of variants that we often do not comprehend or fully understand at the moment.

Tragically, we often express our not-fully-understood-anger to those who are near us and will listen (i.e., family, neighbors, co-workers, social media posts, etc.). The net result, those who are 'not' the cause of our fear, lack of control, and feelings of injustice become recipients of our anger. Furthermore, the root cause of our anger is never dealt with, and additional conflict can emerge in relationships where our anger unnecessarily pours forth.

In the end, unexamined anger can lead to a lot of people being angry and not really knowing why - everyone gets trapped in the secondary emotion of anger and becomes reactionary without stopping to think.

The solution? Stop and think. Why am I angry? What is causing my anger? Am I expressing my anger to those people not directly responsible for my fear, lack of control, and feelings of injustice? What do I need to do with my fear, lack of control, and feelings of injustice? Do I need to repent, confront another, forgive, reconcile, cry out for mercy, stomp the dust off and move on, etc.?

Lord, teach us to anger when we should and should not, forgive us when we sin in our anger, and grant us discernment to comprehend everything beneath this secondary emotion.

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