How Anger Could Advance the Kingdom...

I am angry at you. Freaking pissed. It takes everything I have not to jump out of my seat and punch you square in the face.

I wonder what you are feeling right now. My guess is defensive. I caught a vision this week of something that could be life changing. And it has to do with you being angry at me. And me being angry at you.

Follow with me for a moment. We are wounded people. All of us. Each person has places in their heart that they are afraid to reveal. Those places have been bullied in middle school, abandoned by fearful fathers, and abused by the world (to name a few). Someone once said that it is the image of God in us at which Satan aims his sharpest arrows. The result? Look around. We are walking wounded. And much to our disappointment, the moment we accept Christ does not immediately heal our broken places and free us to live fully for the world to see. Instead, it is only the starting point of a journey that invites us to take step towards healing and threatens us to remain shattered.

As we grow in Christ, we begin to increasingly understand our individual stories. We see our crippled places and the ways that our wounds limit us. Much of the time, it is fear that the enemy uses to hand cuff us, blocking us from revealing our reflected glory to a world that needs to witness it so badly.

If we are wise, we know we need to live in a community of friends. But more often than not, our friendships stay at a surface level. And when they do go deep enough where we know each other’s stories and they know ours, they still usually only reach the level of genuine encouragement. When anger does surface in the relationship, it because someone’s feelings were hurt or their needs weren't met.

But what if our anger went to an even deeper level. What if you knew my story so well that you knew the ways that I lived in fear due to being crippled, and when you saw me live that way, you became so righteously angry that you told me. Could you get so angry at me for not offering something that God has marked me with? Would you have the courage to tell me?

If our friendships looked like that, I cannot imagine how it would advance the kingdom. Rather than living small lives, being held back in fear, we would likely fear more the anger of our good friends and live boldly, offering Jesus in us to a hurting and dying world. Upon hearing that you were freaking pissed at me, I would be called out in love.