My viewpoints about today’s events range across a vast emotional landscape. My emotional states seem like small energies, each one hoping it might explode into the prevailing thought that will guide me through the coming days. Discernment seems difficult. Maybe you feel the same…?
The outlook that gathers around foreboding isn’t that helpful. Emotions that traipse among Pollyannish theologies are in the same boat. Somewhere in the middle—or off to the side—there must be a set of reactions to the coming events that will carry me where I need to be.
One possible frame of reference: The coming political storms might be a distraction that can pull me away from what’s central to my being. With the specter of the coming cultural chaos feeling close to overwhelming, I may forget why I accepted this “serving others” mindset so many decades ago. Playing amateur politician certainly adds to the lure of my news binging, sapping my energy and attention away from what I have always seen as central to my being: Supporting and caring for others—most of them stronger and smarter than me. Listening deeply; staying focused on what’s spiritually central to all of life. Side-stepping what’s mundane in order to cherish what’s unique, awesome, beautiful. Paying attention to who/what is true. Caring for creation. Helping protect generations that will follow me. Looking for God’s grace in others.
In the final analysis, what’s distracting me is small stuff. Inept leaders with self-important imaginations. Events whose effects will dissipate like a bad smell. Societal fads that will collapse of their own weight. Selfish ambitions destroyed by their own backlash. Anger corroding brains already diminished by fear.
I may be missing something, but staying focused and purposed seems right and true for me right now.
How’s that sound to you….?
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