Anger

Of the seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both of the pain you are given and the pain your giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. (Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

If you read yesterday's post, you can understand when I say I am angry. I am heartbroken over the loss and death of our dog, but it is made worse because I am angry. I am angry that the other owner didn't recognize that the dog given to him wasn't his, I am angry at the vet staff for giving him the wrong dog. I am angry at the staff for caring for a dog for over a day and not recognizing that it wasn't our dog (and was in fact a male dog, and not a female dog). I am angry.

And yet, I don't want to be. I want to offer forgiveness, and I want to move through the anger to the other side of it.

God made us. He created us, including our emotions. Anger is a response that we cannot ignore. We get angry. How we deal with it is important. Do we feast on it, as Buechner suggests we might? Or do we pass on that meal, to move to one of grace?

What will I do? I hope that I - in fact, I have faith that I will move through this anger to the otherside, where forgiveness and peace awaits. I know that God will travel with me.