A Norvell Note

November 2, 2025 – Vol. 29 No. 41

He Can Handle It

“I’m sorry, but I’m angry with God.” 

I hear that statement quite often. I have listened to it when a loved one is near death or has already passed. People say it after a job opportunity has fallen through, or when life seems to be going in the wrong direction. I have said it myself a few times. 

When I hear that statement, unless the anger sounds like a more profound level of anger, I usually say. “I think God understands that and can handle your anger.” Quite often, the hurting person sitting across will tear up and say, “I hope so.”

Perhaps I don’t know the Lord as well as I think I do, but I am shocked by how many people I meet view the Lord as an angry God, watching us from His throne of judgment, waiting (almost hoping) for us to falter so He can zap us and condemn us. Some people live in fear of taking one misstep and getting struck by lightning. 

I do not know that God. The God I know, love, and worship is tremendously merciful and kind. The God I know loves us more than we can imagine, longs for us to live well, and can handle our pain, our complaints, and yes, even our anger. He knows all our thoughts before they leave our lips and wants to be honest with Him. 

That’s the God I know and want you to know Him. Perhaps His words will help you come to know Him, trust Him, and accept that He loves you and does not want you to live in fear. 

I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. (Psalm 142:1–3a)

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah (Psalm 62:8)

I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.” (Laminations 3:55-57)

“Therefore, I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. (Job 7:11)

In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. (Romans 8:26-27)

You are loved

Tom

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