What Resentment Is Really Trying to Tell You

I've been sitting with resentment lately. Not running from it, not feeding it — just sitting with it. And what I'm discovering is that resentment is a distraction. Not a meaningless one, but a distraction nonetheless — one that pulls our attention away from something deeper that needs to be seen.

Here's what I mean. When we recognize something wrong with the world, that moment produces two things simultaneously: a call to action and a resentment. The problem is that resentment is loud. It's consuming. And so the call to action — the thing that could actually move us forward — gets buried underneath it.

I notice this most when I think about people who seem unaware of the destruction they cause. Or worse, people who I suspect choose not to see it — because truly seeing it would require something of them. It would demand change, accountability, discomfort. And so they look away. That willful not-seeing is what triggers my resentment most.

But here's what journaling is showing me: even that resentment is pointing me somewhere. Not toward changing their seeing — toward finding my own call to action. What is this moment asking of me?

If you've read my book Abundantly You, this might remind you of how I talk about worry — how it, too, carries a hidden invitation that we often miss. Resentment works the same way. The invitation is there. We just have to see past the noise to find it.