Let good come from anger
I don’t mean the heat from late July temperatures when I ask, “Have you been too hot?”
The heat I’m talking about isn’t indicated on an outdoor bank sign or discussed by a meteorologist. This is the heat when we admit we’re hot under the collar.
Yes, I’m talking anger. This is the emotion usually avoided because, no pun, it’s not the cool one. In the vlog I made this past week which introduced the three-part sermon series BEAT THE HEAT, I share no one wakes up in the morning and says, “Gee, this is a really good day for me to be angry.”
I add that if anger were a menu option where love, generosity and joy are also options, we wouldn’t choose anger. In fact, our culture dismisses anger. We send it away. We ignore it. We tamp it down. Yet anger, when looked at correctly, can bring great mercy, justice and peace.
Tall order? Maybe. But this depends on who you ask. At the pulpit this past Sunday, I looked closely at Naaman, a prime example of a success story of how good can come from anger.
Naaman’s success comes from his victories as a military leader. This, however, isn’t the part of his story scripture grabs. Instead, the story of Naaman reveals this military muscle has leprosy, a disease on the skin that is beyond embarrassing and painful. It’s incurable.
Scripture also reveals Naaman’s anger directly. There’s no couching this emotion. It’s there. Front. Center.
Interestingly, Naaman’s anger isn’t over getting this hideous mess of a disease. Naaman’s anger is over how he can treat it.
How can anyone treat an incurable disease? Scripture shows us only God can do this. In Naaman’s story, the words of God come through a prophet who instructs Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River not just once, but seven times.
Is that odd? Yes. Is this beyond frustrating—and perhaps humiliating—to Naaman? Definitely yes.
When Naaman’s illness is made public (and this detail isn’t brought out in scripture), he receives word from the most unlikely source that he should travel to a foreign country to seek treatment. Scripture does say he packs for this trip. He takes a lot of money with him. Powerful people are known to do this.
Scripture also shares Naaman takes a lot of clothes with him. Maybe he’s like some of us who overpack. A two-night stay, for example, finds us with a trunk full of luggage that could comfortably clothe a family of seven for a week.
Maybe he is a clothes person. But I think this successful person who can win so much is losing not just his pride but his identity. He’s covering his skin.
How do I know this? Do you flaunt an unpleasing body issue? Usually not.
Scripture doesn’t tell us what he’s wearing when he goes for a soak, but this wonderful warrior being brazen and shirtless doesn’t fit my image of this scene. I imagine a prideful man now in a painful place wants to cover all that awful.
Oh, and there’s no “one and done” for Naaman. He must repeat this process seven times.
This is what makes him angry. Hot angry. Those around him hear it and know it.
They also respond to it.
Naaman responds, too. He hears those around him. In listening to them, he dips into the water seven times and is made well—completely well.
Maybe someone isn’t directing your anger like those around Naaman did. Maybe you feel out on your own on this.
But you’re not alone. God hears you. God directs you.
I need to share that not everyone is made well like Naaman. Advice from a prophet did restore him, but not everyone who comes to God for wellness receives healing this way. Some incurable diseases aren’t cured. But this isn’t loss. This is another story for another column at another time.
This is a story of anger. Specifically, this is a story of how anger informs you. Listening to what our anger has to say about deep hurts, brokenness, disconnection, suffering, and pain leads not to more deep hurts, disconnection, suffering and pain. Anger leads us to conversation and a connection to God who, just like in the story of Naaman, hears us and restores us not in our way, but in His.
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