Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Ephesians 4:31
Are you a Simpsons fan? Well, I am. One of the funniest and most memorable episodes for me was “Hurricane Neddy” from 1996. It was the episode when the picture-perfect friendly Christian neighbor Ned Flanders just explodes in anger to the whole town of Springfield because he suppressed his anger for too long. I occasionally remember this episode because I never want react the way Ned Flanders did. But how?
Well, just as the passage above said, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger.” I take this quite literally. When we’re feeling powerful emotions like bitterness, rage, and anger, they need to be EXPRESSED or LET OUT. Just because we don’t express anger doesn’t mean we’re not angry. In fact, it’s quite dangerous for us to do so because our anger will leak out in unhealthy and unexpected ways. If we don’t find safe spaces and safe people with whom we can express our anger and other powerful emotions, we may find ourselves saying or doing something we’d regret to the people whom we love the most.
