There Is a Feeling Like the Clenching of a Fist

I have many friends who tell me they don’t watch, read, or listen to the news anymore.  I understand that the sound of some politicians voices make us tired.  I get that the 24/7 news cycle causes stress and not just for media professionals.

But it’s a peculiar privilege to ignore what’s going on in the world.  It’s easy not to think about people suffering at our southern border or the latest school shooting or health care nightmares.  Many of our neighbors cannot ignore such realities because it’s part of their daily lives.

It’s a little scary to have so many things to get angry about.  I’m still angry that Saudi Arabia was not held accountable for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.  I’m angry that a guy drove to the El Paso Walmart for the stated desire of shooting brown people.  If I think about it for more than a minute, I am burning inside that we have taken children from their parents at the border causing the kind of childhood trauma that will last for a generation.  I’m angry that – for legal immigrants to this country – it costs about $20,000 to get a green card per family member.

There’s a feeling like the clenching of a fist.  James Taylor wrote that lyric for a song about Dr. King and while there has always been plenty to be righteously angry about, it’s certainly not letting up these days.

How do we find peace in such a troubled world?

• Try to see even our enemies through the eyes of Christ?
• Pray for that peace that passes all understanding?
• Remember that God is bigger than politics and injustice?
• Love people the best we can?
• Practice resurrection in our everyday lives?

Jesus prayed that we would make earth as it is in heaven.  We can’t do that by ignoring the news, the injustices, the people in need around us.  Jesus died for Jamal Khashoggi and the Walmart shooter and the victims of that crime and their families and every single person at the border including the border agents, and the children who have been taken from their parents and now live in foster care in Michigan and Virginia and Idaho far from mom and dad.  Sometimes I have the feeling like the clenching of a fist.  And all I can do is ask God to make it better.

Note: God uses us to make things better.

Image by Benny Andrews is Did a Bear Sit Under a Tree? (1969) The lyric by James Taylor is from the song Shed a Little Light. (1991)