Fear, Anger, and the Two Greatest Commandments

Oh, where to begin... I have a feeling that this will be another entry that jumps all over the place, so my apologies in advance to those who bother reading this.

It's been two days since the outbreak of violence in Charlottesville and at least a week since rumblings emerged of North Korea planning to use nukes against the US. I'm not going to delve into the politics of it all but in a nutshell, I'd say the overall feeling among the populace is one of fear and anger and justifiably so.

I've had to impose on myself a strict cut-off point with exposure to media coverage. It's no challenge for me to become crippled with worry and that does nothing to give me clear or productive thinking. Which is, I think, a big contribution to the problems we're facing right now as a collective American culture. Fear is paralyzing but anger can be mobilizing. Anger that is unchecked and constantly fueled will easily become hatred and animosity. If a person is constantly being exposed to things high in negativity, whether that be toward themselves or toward perceived outsiders, it becomes toxic to our minds, bodies, and souls. These alt-right and antifa fools are being fed an hourly diet of news and ideological material that tells them to be enraged all the time and when they see what their "enemy" is absorbing they get even more enraged and feel justified in their antagonism. The world can be a cruel place and there's no shortage of injustice in it, but if we aren't willing to put aside our anger and use our words like civilized human beings we aren't long for this world.

Christ's two greatest commandments are to love the Lord with your entire being and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. It should come as no surprise that our negligence in doing the first commandment has led to problems with doing the second. A big part of that lies in what our perspective is. If we're too caught up in the direness of our circumstances, if we're unwilling to take joy in the little things in life that God's given us, we are going to become bitter and impose a hellish existence on ourselves. As someone that has suffered from anxiety and depression to varying degrees for the majority of his life, I will say that this is quite often easier said than done. But there are ways to get through it. Therapy is a huge help. Recognizing what you have in your life and expressing gratitude for it is another. Giving back to those that are less fortunate within your community, whether that be with your time or with resources. Surrounding yourself with productive and positive people. All of these are beneficial.

"Be the change you want in the world." It's a huge cliche that verges on platitude but that has more to do with us being too complacent about following through than anything else. It's much easier to spout campaign phrases about hope and change and making America great again when we don't have to be the ones facilitating it. Goodness knows, I'm no saint about it either. But if we don't want more incidents like in Charlottesville than we're going to need to take the initiative. Obeying our Lord's commandments is the best place to start.

-L. Travis Hoffman

8/14/2017