Anger and resentment are not the same and words matter very much.
We must be very careful with our words, if we are intent on changing the world in which we live. It reminds me of my favorite George Carlin joke from many decades ago:
A woman walks up to a man and a dog. She remarks over what a lovely dog it is. She asks the man: Does your dog bite?” The man says no. The woman reaches down to pet the dog and the dog bites her. She says to the man “I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite!” The man says “That’s not my dog.”
Resentment is like a cancer. It can eat you up inside. It has no productive quality except to inform you that you are off base. Resentment wants you to believe that the person or thing you resent has something you can’t have and want badly. It makes you feel powerless. If you are in pursuit of your truth, you will learn that either you can have that with applied effort or that it is not something you need or even want in this life time. Either way, you must release this highly toxic feeling of resentment for your own health.
Anger is a vastly different emotion than resentment. Anger can propel you into a much needed and justified action if it is owned and then used correctly. Unlike resentment, it has an energy that is highly useful unless it is left to fester unused/unclaimed by you. For instance, in the time of Jesus, He expressed a righteous anger when he went to the temple and saw the displaced use of commerce. In his justified anger, he overturned the tables and denounced the wrongness that was taking place. Using His example, we can effect change in our world with regard to injustice by focusing our anger into appropriate and peaceful change.
Resentment and displaced anger are dangerous to your psyche and unchecked they eat away like a cancer. Righteous anger, on the other hand, must be addressed for it speaks of human unfairness and a need for change. It is this injustice that must be addressed if we are to gain Peace on Earth.
