Anger in the bible verses does not bring out the righteousness of God, but instead stirs up wrath, produces folly, and often results in evil.  Feeling angry itself is not wrong.  There are moments when we are tried and tested and we run out of patience. We have many examples of holy men and prophets, getting angry in the Old and New Testament. Cain was angry before he killed his brother (Gen 4:5)  and who would think the chosen Moses (great vigor and steadfastness) would appear angry when he struck the rock with his rod (Nb 20:6-13), Jonah was angry with God after feeling he was mistreated (Jonah 4:1-11) and Job expressed similar feelings (Job 3:1-20). 

The shutdown of Palestine State in the Middle East had forced me to call off the planned Jordan/Israel pilgrimage departure just 72 hours prior to our travelling date. This was when I began to feel the first effects of Covid-19, but underestimated the extent of it.

I have been in the tourism industry for more than 35 years and until this year. Throughout these years, I have experienced terrorism, war, stock market crashes and even 2002 SARS outbreaks, all of which have impacted the travel industry. In some of these events, we have not felt the impact in our lives, while in some, the business has rebounded incredibly fast.

As the days and week progresses, we saw cases raised by 2-folds to 6- folds and I was especially saddened by the numbers of death in northern Italy. It had become clear to my partner and me that we need to cancel the rest of the pilgrimage group for this year.  A few countries already prompted drastic action, such as closing borders, imposed blanket travel bans and put a stop to major events to prevent mass gatherings. To make the situation worse, the aggressive media reporting had created a huge amount of fear in our pilgrims and their families! One of our pilgrims even told me that she wants to go, but my children keep telling me not to go! Honestly, will her children be at peace while she is on the road? 

The fear with constant worrying and always expecting the worst can take a toll on our emotional and physical health. Taking into consideration, the average age of our pilgrims that had some medical issues, the journey would have exposed themselves to higher risks. 

There were anger and anxiety as to why God lets this happen to us. I began to search for answers in the Bible and started praying more and reciting all the 5 mysteries in a day!  St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 4:26, "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. " Anger is reacting to frustration, anxiety, criticism or a threat which is not really a sin but regret for the rest of our life.

I honestly feel that even looking back, whatever moves we made at that time were right. Faith is an important component to accepting God’s wisdom. We recognize the fact that God wants to communicate with us (Pr4:18) says, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” As we admit our feelings and express them to God, we can start working through these emotions with him.  We can find ourselves growing closer to God, even while we are still struggling.