“Anger has something to tell us; it’s sometimes the gift that alerts us of wrong in the world.”
-Susannah Griffith in Forgiveness After Trauma: A Path to Find Healing and Empowerment, Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024 (pp 71).
I am currently reading this book on the topic of forgiveness and trauma. Thus far, it is very good being both grounded in Scripture and lived experience.
As I was going through the material, some leftover anger arose within me from the ending of my first marriage. It was a scene with a now (ex) in-law where this person twisted something that was a sacrifice for us as a couple at the time and used it as a weapon to degrade me.
The words were an invalidation of my sacrifice as well as an attack on my character. Hence, I felt anger.
Now, that I see it, I can let it go to God. It makes sense that I would be angry over that, and it was healthy to feel that way. Now, it’s God’s problem, not mine.
Gratefully, with the distance of years and forgiveness work, I am able to let go faster than I was able to do back in the think of it.
Years can pass, and we may still be triggered by something like I was. Thankfully, it wasn’t a strong triggering but worth dealing with as I extended grace to my old self who was angry back in the moment of the wrongdoing against me.
