One fellow I've observed has been angry for days now. He's loud, confrontational and unaware with how all of this is coming off to the watching audience. His anger comes from several sources, but most recently he sees an injustice that's overlooked. What he doesn't see- and what most of us never see- is that his anger doesn't make anyone take the injustice more seriously. In fact, his particular expressions of anger make many of us take the whole matter much LESS seriously.

[...]

In graduate school, I learned that anger is a multiple-fronted poison. It turns into depression. It creates rage-a-holics with explosive, abusive patterns of behavior. It makes us into liars. It damages our health, releasing an array of damaging responses in the body. Anger is an explosion that has almost no useful energy, but which is certain to damage the person holding the bomb.

We're reluctant to deal with this problem. It's "excusable" and we expect that others will see it as a common failing. In fact, we need to have people in our lives who can confront us with the details and the effects of our anger. We need to be rid of the notion that our anger is not affecting other people. We need to admit that it is a perception of a threat, and a response to a threat that is often wrong on both counts. We need to look at our anger as others see and experience it- particularly children and observers. A video tape would be embarrassing, but it might do us all a lot of good.

[...]

I deplore a kind of phony, saccharine personality that passes for a "Christian" who would never think of being angry. But there is too much needless, hurtful, sinful anger among those of us who believe that "everything is in His hands." If there is any area where we all need to help one another to do a general repentance and walk a better way, I believe anger would be a good place to begin.