Issue 446
Where do you take your anger when you know you are right? You are trying to construct something positive and find yourself enduring a torrent of insults. What can you do?
There is a theory in the universe that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It has to do with believing that the total amount of energy remains the same – it just gets moved around.
I’m going to suggest to you that anger energy cannot go nowhere, it has to go somewhere. Some anger may have been inherited and you now carry it – maybe you will pass it on to your children.
In others, anger gets turned inwards and shows up in the struggles of the body. Yet others hurl their anger at the nearest person – and you may have been on the receiving end of that.
Nehemiah finds himself on the receiving end of a barrage of mockery, insults, threats and downright rage. Fury is bottled-up and thrown in his direction. No doubt some anger has been redirected his way by individuals who are furious at the powers of the day, but dare not express that, for fear of reprisals.
Take a walk into Nehemiah’s mind and you find a man at work on the receiving end of anger but also who has now become angry himself. Notice he has every right to be angry, he has been insulted, belittled and vilified and he is mad.
Now watch what he does. He does not lash out at his enemies, or his co-workers, or even himself. He does the strangest thing – he turns his anger into a fifty-two word indignant and furious prayer. He could have edited this bit out but he meant it and left it in.
First he tells God he wants to be heard, and then he tells God what he wants. His wish list is four-dimensional. Turn their insults back on their heads; give them over as plunder in captivity; don’t cover their guilt; don’t blot out their sins.
It’s fairly clear. Nehemiah wants God to unleash a volley of artillery into his enemies which will result in head injuries, captivity, guilt and shame. He wants no mercy, forgiveness or grace for them because he and his team have been insulted.
Should he have prayed like that? Well it doesn’t matter what you or I think, he did pray like that. Should he have felt like that? Same again, he clearly did feel like that.
So here are a few suggestions for you to make sense of this moment. If you feel enraged, furious, insulted, violated or wronged and you are really mad at your opponents, how about putting your anger into a prayer? What’s the point of pretending its OK when its not? What’s the point of carefully crafted gentle words when you just want to throttle someone? But Nehemiah took it to God, fury and all.
Whatever else Nehemiah was at this point he was being brutally honest. He wanted his enemies to lose, to fail, to be hurt, punished and enslaved so that is what he told God.
Have you tried that? This week when you want to destroy the opposition, have you formulated a prayer to that effect? If that’s how you feel, then go ahead, pray it. God can see it anyway so you don’t fool Him by covering it up. Nehemiah’s mind was transparent. He was right and he knew it and he turned his anger into prayer.
How different would your team be if you turned your anger into prayer instead of into gossip, prayer instead quarrelling, prayer instead of self-loathing, prayer instead of bullying, prayer instead of abuse?
Now you have placed your angry requests in the hands of God you have also begun to trust Him to decide what to do with them. Does God turn insults back? Yes He does. Does He inflict captivity? Yes He does. Does He withhold the covering-up of guilt? Yes He does. Does He refuse to blot out sins? Yes He does. Nehemiah’s angry prayer was answered way beyond his requests but not far beyond his wall.
For God takes all insults and turns them back on His own head. God gives Himself over to a land of captivity two arms wide and one body long. Guilt was not covered up but clear for all to see and the stain of sin and shame was bright red running to the eastern soil.
Energy, especially your anger energy, may not be destroyed but it can be consumed, that is what the cross of Jesus of Nazareth does. Nehemiah’s work- related anger would find its way to Jesus’ workplace and as it arrived with countless other insults, it would be met with “Father forgive them”.
Neither Nehemiah, the builders, nor Ezra the priest, nor Sanballat, Tobiah or Geshem deserved forgiveness. I suspect Nehemiah’s utter confidence in praying an angry prayer was connected in his mind to a God who he was beginning to understand would surprise everyone by His answer.
Go ahead, pray your anger. But look ahead and see His answer. Nehemiah was planning a Jerusalem. God was planning a Kingdom.
Nehemiah’s prayer indicates he was beginning to see it. You cannot trust God with your anger if you haven’t figured out He can handle it. I doubt Nehemiah even in his brilliance had seen that far ahead but he could feel it and so can you. This week, each day, pray your anger and feel what you feel. Please don’t get mad at me if you disagree.
Nehemiah Chapter 4:4-5
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
In preparation for the next GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly, do feel free to email us your thoughts to wtw@worktalk.gs or leave a comment on our Facebook or Twitter profile. You can also visit our YouTube channel - get inspired and share Worktalk's vision with others.
Work well
Geoff Shattock
© Copyright 2024 Geoff Shattock
All GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly archives are for personal use only. For permission to use for any other purposes please email using the address below thank you.
WORKTALK LEARNING
1 Washington Villas, Hythe Road, Marchwood, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 4WT United Kingdom
T:+44 (0)23 8086 8543
http://www.geoffshattock.com
comms@worktalk.gs
