Christy Penley: What to Do With Anger as a Disciple of Jesus

·41 min·4 clips

Christy Penley reveals how anger can be a flag for growing closer to God if we learn to notice, name, and navigate it.

The episode begins with an introduction to a series on anger, prompted by news stories and personal reflections. Host Matt Tebbe welcomes guest Christy Penley, who holds a doctorate on kingdom emotions. Christy explains her research, emphasizing that emotions like anger can be opportunities for spiritual growth if we learn to notice, name, and navigate them. Ben Sternke chimes in about the cultural devaluation of emotions in Christian spaces. The hosts use the analogy of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone to illustrate how emotional intelligence holistically improves ecosystems, including human relationships and spirituality. Matt shares a personal story of being bullied as a child, leading him to repress anger out of fear. Christy reframes anger as not inherently good or bad but as comfortable or uncomfortable, urging compassion over judgment. She introduces the concept of sound versus unsound anger, with sound anger responding to injustice and unsound anger stemming from personal irritations like hunger or fatigue. Ben discusses his tendency to repress anger due to past damage, highlighting the importance of interrupting negative self-stories. The conversation touches on gender differences in anger expression, with societal norms allowing men more leeway. Matt references Aubrey Hendricks' book 'The Politics of Jesus,' which suggests saving anger for the mistreatment of others, and notes a textual variant where Jesus is described as 'snorting with anger' at injustice. The episode concludes with a preview of future series topics, including the helpful and unhelpful work of anger, and a promotion for the Gravity Formation course.

As heard by us

A grounded conversation about noticing anger without turning it into shame or permission to harm.

Anger is given a careful hearing here, neither treated as something to suppress nor excused when it harms others. Christy Penley and the host keep the focus on noticing the emotion, naming it with compassion, and loosening the reflexive story that anger is bad, wrong, or proof…

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Need a way to notice anger without shaming yourself or handing it the keys?

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