Thoughts and feelings of anger and hatred happen. In cases of violence, descrimination or injustice done to a person, feelings of anger and sometimes hatred arise from the depths of one's being. If you feel no anger or hurt toward those who hurt or injury you, you am not being true to what is happening inside yourself.

Feelings of anger and hatred are appropriate when one's humanity is denied or violated. These feelings and thoughts are not good or bad in themselves. What I do with them is what counts. Trust that God can and will transform them into something good, this is what counts.

Within every person is inner Light. The Light can transform your anger, hatred, feelings or rage. It can change your perceptions if they are distorted. The Light comes into the darkness, it is not overcome by darkness. The Light burns within no matter what has happened.

Ask the inner Light to heal your anger, fears, desire for revenge or other feelings and thoughts that arise from the hard and bad things that have happened in your life. You can seek that all this be transformed into something positive.

You can choose to not strike back at others who hurt you. You can choose to not hurt yourself on account of the bad things that happened to you. Ask the Light to teach you how to forgive as Jesus forgave those who killed him. Over time the Light will transform you so that you will feel compassion toward those who greviously injured you and others.

The transformation does happen, changing terrible injustices and violences done to you that resulted in serious injuries or disablities into something good, true and beautiful. Where there is a breath of life there is still hope. There is always hope, even in the midst of death, dying, craziness, lies and utter destruction.

Facing Violence with Non-violence

When another treates you or others as less than human, denies your human rights, or acts as though you do not exist, their action speaks only about them, not about you or others. The denial of your humanity does not take away your humanity. What you do with this experience is what matters. You can yell and scream back at them. You can hit back at them in someway. Or you can choose the way of nonviolence, the way of peace. You can choose to call them your sisters and brothers. You can treat them with kindness and compassion. You can speak the truth to them and take what comes. To choose and to walk in the way of nonviolence, peace, compassion and truth in the fact of being treated as non-human or violently comes from the Light. It is the Light that empowers you to walk the way of nonviolence, compassion and truth in your life.

copyright 1997 Anchorhold. To use this article in any form requires permission from the Anchorhold.