I generally like to keep things pretty positive over here at Already & Not Yet. As my friend Mike is prone to say on his blog, there are plenty of other places you can go if you want negative. I like to abide by that principle, too. Generally speaking.

But, if you’ll indulge me, there’s something I’ve just got to get off my chest: the slogans they put on church signs are just ridiculous. You’ve seen ’em…the smug, smarmy supposedly catchy slogans they put on church signs to catch your attention like, “Fight Truth Decay” or “Come in for a free faith lift” or, my all time favorite, “Ch_ _ch. Know what’s missing? U R?”

Those slogans I can live with. (FYI: If you think your pastor comes up with all those catchy little nuggets, you’re wrong. Google “church sign slogans” and you’ll find ’em all.) Silly though they may be, they’re pretty harmless.

But I drove past a church in another town recently and their sign read: “Anger Is Temporary Insanity.” Now this one annoys me. Actually, it more than annoys me. I just don’t understand what the sign is trying to communicate. That anger is evil? That anytime I’m angry, I’m “temporarily insane”? That’s just ridiculous. If anger is a sin, Jesus missed the memo. I certainly understand that anger can indeed be dangerous. The Biblical mandate for self-control and refusing to act on angry impulses is clear.

But Scripture is also clear that anger is an emotion we must learn to deal with faithfully. The hard working Christian who’s bypassed while an unscrupulous co-worker gets the promotion; father of a terminally ill child whose prayers simply haven’t been answered; the wife who discovers her husband’s unfaithfulness. Each of these individuals may feel a sense of anger toward God as the result of these circumstances. I would even go so far as to say there would be something wrong with them if they weren’t a little upset. And yet, the Bible portrays a God who is big enough to handle even our anger. The full gamut of human emotion is reflected in even a cursory reading of the Psalms. Rather than condemning anger, our churches need to be bearing witness to the God of Scripture, who “daily bears our burdens” (Ps. 68:19).

Sorry, I feel better now. I guess I was just temporarily insane.