THE PROCESS OF EXPRESSION

I have made it a weekly practice, on a long walk on the hill behind my home, to present to God my anger against people who have wronged me.  I recount all my reasons for feeling unfairly treated or misunderstood, forcing myself to open up deep feelings to God (does God not know them anyway?).  I can testify that the outpouring itself has a therapeutic effect.  Usually I come away feeling as if I have just released a huge burden.  The unfairness no longer sticks like a thorn inside me, as it once did; I have expressed it aloud to someone -- to God.  Sometimes I find that in the process of expression, I grow in compassion.  God's Spirit speaks to me of my own selfishness, my judgmental spirit, my own flaws that others have treated with grace and forgiveness, my pitifully limited viewpoint.

-- Philip Yancey in “The Bible Jesus Read”

#4369