The sky isn’t falling.
Contrary to post-election paralysis-by-analysis, “the next four years” will not be the most crucial, difficult, trying period in US history. It will not be the longest four years we’ve experienced.
In fact, the next four years will most likely be just about four years long.
Certainly we face challenges, but when has that not been the case? I recall staring fearfully at a small black-and-white television while Mom reassured me that Russian soldiers wouldn’t be marching down the street during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember staring at the same TV, wondering if a country could survive the assassination of its president and racial unrest and then riots in the streets of its major cities.
My parents talked about bread lines and WPA during The Great Depression, and the sacrifices of WWII. My grandparents spoke of leaving homelands as small children for a strange place called America. Not many generations ago, in this very nation, we faced slavery and a horrible, divisive civil war.
How can 2012 be “the worst of times”?
We’ve just spent months listening to skilled media manipulators prey upon our fears. Nearly every political ad has been designed to make us believe “the other guy” would intentionally lead us down a path to doom and destruction. Now the election’s over. For about half of us, the other guy won and the end is obviously near.
Except, it’s not.
For those of us who follow Jesus, here’s the truth. The world’s as broken today as it was yesterday and will be every day until Jesus returns. No politician’s going to change that.
You and I, however, can choose freedom from fear. We can choose to stop complaining, blaming, and criticizing. We can work harder, love more, and take responsibility for our own attitudes. We can choose gratitude. We can hit the pillow each night with clear eyes and a full heart.
I won’t do those things—not perfectly or completely, and neither will you. But if we work at them, we won’t be victims of our circumstances.
I can’t fix the world. Neither can you or anyone else. But I can do what I can, right here, with what I have, to change a piece of it.
You can, too.
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