A PILL for the Virus

In times of great uncertainty we are prone to doubt, worry, and anxious thoughts in larger quantities and with greater intensity than our “normal” is comfortable with.  Most of us are having that “normal” greatly stretched with the recent events of a world-wide virus pandemic.  Although fear may be a helpful reaction when faced with potential physical harm, fear can become a dangerous virus of its own taking the form of chronic unsettledness, discontent, and confusion.   I would like to prescribe the following P-I-L-L for reducing fear and anxiety.  

P- Pursue God.  

The first dose of any solution to our human problems is to cry out to God.  Dating back to ancient times, we have history showing us how God has been faithful to the human race he created.  Most of the Psalms were written about 3 thousand years ago, but are incredibly relevant to today.  Psalms have been read, spoken aloud, silently meditated on, sung, memorized, dramatized, and fully engaged in other ways by generations of people before us.  The authors faced real-life circumstances causing them to seek God, pursue God, find God, and put their trust in God for their Refuge and Salvation.  Besides relating to God through the Bible, calling out to him in prayer (both as an individual and in the company of other people) is an  essential first step to combat fear.

I- Influence Restriction.  

A second dose is to cautiously limit the negative influence of fear mongers.  Fear of loss is a powerful motivator of human behavior, and there are forces in our world using this trait to manipulate for evil purposes.  For example, the traditional news media is a powerful influencer of public opinion, and have been often hijacked to promote false narratives and fear-based propaganda.  Years ago, I personally quit watching TV network so-called news for that reason.  For a while I naively thought I could watch it, sort out fact from fiction for myself, and not have the fear-based influences affect me.  I discovered a person’s best conscious efforts cannot completely overcome an emotionally manipulative message to create fear.   Especially in times when great energy is needed to reduce toxic stress, it’s not worth the risk.  Consider your circumstances to discover other negative influences to restrict (ie. so-called social media, gossip, conversations with people who condemn others).  Avoid speculators, and limit information intake to the facts.  

L- Love as defined by God.  

Jesus summarized the ten commandments into two, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and most important command.  The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39; CSB).  When our identity is rooted in God, we can know who we really are, and we can be released to love others in the way we are loved by God.  Loving others gives us our deepest meaning and purpose in life.  Besides distracting us from our own fears, looking out for the needs and interests of others helps lower others’ fears.  Love is a catalyst for good in the face of evil.  

L- Live in Faith.  

Faith is the ultimate cure for fear.  God is the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2).   As “author,” is the source and provider of faith.  As “perfecter,” God is the protector and multiplier of faith.  In order for faith to be alive it must be growing continuously.  For growth to take place, there must be a transformation of old to new and smaller to larger.   With a garden vegetable plant for example, a seed must be placed in the ground.  Then the seed becomes a sprout.  Then the sprout makes an appearance as a short stub of a plant.  A few days or weeks later, it may be a few inches high.  Then more time passes and it becomes a foot or more taller or sprawling as a vine.  Then fruit first appears as a bud, and then growth of the fruit occurs.  Good growth (“perfecting”) depends on good conditions (“authoring”) of soil, water, and temperature.   So it is with our faith in the hands of Almighty God.  The faith in our heart grows through a transformation and progressive sanctification, lifelong process.   A life of faith in God, is a life committed to inside-out change as a life time adventure.  

Fear is the greatest enemy of faith.  While faith has its source in a good God, fear has its source in an evil adversary (the devil).  Going all the way back to the creation of mankind, unbelief,  doubt , and confusion were used by our chief enemy to lure us away from God’s love.  As long as we live in this broken world, we will not be totally free of the potential harassment of fear, but through Jesus (who defeated all our enemies once for all), God’s love is fully accessible (simply by believing, John 3:16).  

We must face our fears with faith.  This is called courage.  With courage, we can choose belief over unbelief, confidence (in God) over doubt, and clarity (of identity and purpose in God) over confusion.  The temptation to fear may not be eradicated, but the courage to respond with faith can grow stronger.  Struggles, trials, and tests develop our perseverance (see James 1:2-4).  As we grow stronger we develop our capacity for larger struggles and trials.  As we witness the global scene become more tumultuous, the possibilities wrought by increasing our resilience (body, mind, soul, and spirit), through faith, should give us hope for facing the future.   (See more on the topic of Emotional Capacity in an earlier article at: http://authoredhersh.blogspot.com/2017/10/emotional-capacity-part-2.html ).

Although there is no actual P-I-L-L for the virus called fear, it can be conquering through pursuing God, restricting bad influences, loving (God, self, and others), and living in transformational faith.  We can declare with confidence, “virus be gone” by swallowing this pill.  

by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

Counter Revolution in Politics

The events of last month surrounding the confirmation by the US Senate of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, revealed a new low for the respect of America’s government, of the people, by the people, and for the people.  

The two major political parties seem to be as far apart as they have ever been.  The written document called the party platform shows the difference of key issues facing the present health and future of our country.  But the dangerous divisions lie even deeper.  We seem to have lost respect and dignity for the process that keeps people on track in assuring virtue and honor are attached to the ideas most valuable for the good of families and communities who make up America.  The biggest problem of all is our distance from respect for God’s ways, and  importance in keeping us on track.  So political power seems more imprtant than it really should be.

This power hungry trend showed up strongly in the confirmation hearings for Judge Kavanaugh. Judge Kavanaugh had gone through the vetting process already a number of times (for the lower court positions he served in), had a proven record for fairness and responsible decision making, and his qualifications were impeccable.  A group of people driven by the ideology of one of the political parties mounted a coordinated effort of falsehoods, character assassination attempts, physical violence, and other tactics demonstrating the lowest level of moral character ever in the history of our political system.

Perhaps most troubling is that this trend downward is encouraged by the top party leadership. Published reports of Hillary Clinton’s comments on 9^th of October quote her as saying there should be civil unrest until their party gets it way. This party’s  Congressional Representatives have made public statements wishing physical harm on political opponents. Other party leaders have made statements that are code words for things like, “lying is okay,” “hurting people is okay if they don’t agree with you,” “whatever it takes to win is justifiable.”  Followers and the sources donating to these political figures are encouraging and  financing mobs to stir up division and unrest, taking forms of racism, sexism, and the like.   

Civil societies must rely on rules of engagement.  Playing a sport is a good illustration of how this works.  Imagine the fans response to a referee who seems to make up the rules as he goes.  From the players perspective, knowing the rules and how they will be interpreted by the referees, is vital to success on the field.  Competent execution of teamwork can only be possible if all the team members are familiar with the rules, and interpreting them as one unit.  Declaring a winner in a game is predicated by both teams playing by the exact same rules.  The referees job is to ensure that happens.   

If our elected officials are the players, then we the voters are the referees.  We are endowed with the task of insisting that these players play by the rules.  Each individuals vote counts toward keeping the elected officials honest in governing so the best interests of the people are served, and not the elected officials themselves.  To vote intelligently, we must make judgment calls regarding actions performed by the players.  In this process truth becomes a vital concern.  

Truth is the foundation for all moral judgment, but truth does not always line up with public opinion.  Public opinion is largely formed by the traditional journalism media. This has become a problem because about 93% of the media endorse one particular political party. This is a serious conflict of interest.   For decades, the media have shown more and more favoritism towards so-called liberal ideology.   The so-called fake news of recent years proves to us that media cannot be trusted for unbiased information upon which to base judgments regarding the best candidates in elections.  Moreover, the party they choose to favor is the party trying to create the most division in our social structure.  

            Several years ago I quit watching network television news for many reasons. It shapes public opinion, one mind at a time.  I realized I could not stay clear of their bias without totally abstaining from their influence on my mind.  I don’t want the negative narratives of the media to influence how I think and respond to life events.  Much of their spin on the truth is designed to create a negative emotional response based on fear.  At best this amounts to manipulation, but at worst this amounts to propaganda and the rapid spread of evil.  Mixing this dynamic into the political arena (for example the way Mr. Kavanaugh was treated), is one of the most dangerous threats to the well-being of our nation.  

I am not saying all this to be alarmist, or to attack specific individuals.  I wish I had more space to share more thoughts and evidence.  Here are some books I’ve read recently, or have on my reading list to reveal the truth.  I encourage the reader to check them out.  A great short book is Andy Andrew’s book called,  “How Do You Kill 11 Million People:  Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think.”  Another book is Eric Bolling’s “Wake Up America: The Nine Virtues That Made Our Nation Great--and Why We Need Them More Than Ever.”   Another is Tucker Carlson’s “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.”   Another is Howard Kurtz’s “Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War Over the Truth.”  Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer wrote, “The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President.”  Writing from a faith perspective, the well known journalist Joe Bartaglia has written, “The Politically Incorrect Jesus: Living Boldly in a Culture of Unbelief.” Another is Erwin Lutzer’s “The Church in Babylon.”  Authors Eric Metaxas, George Barna, Josh McDowell, and many others are warning of trends that need to be reversed for our nation to survive.  Of course the Bible is the greatest source of truth and books like Proverbs share wisdom that transcends all peoples, places, and times.   

God is the source of all truth.  Respecting God is the beginning of all wisdom (Proverbs).  There was a time in our nation when our leaders showed much more honor for God (and his guidelines for living) than we see presently.  In our system of government, each individual has the responsibility of helping referee our leaders’ commitment to truth.  Our voice (whistle) is a vote in an election.  God followers must pray, engage, and vote for candidates who are demonstrating actions which honor God and honor his created people.  Speech doesn’t cut it. Many candidates say the right words without  actions consistent with a true meaning of their words.  We are called to pray and seek God’s guidance.  

Sometimes it is difficult to discern who is telling the truth.  Seeking out voter guides from reputable organizations who monitor positions valued by people of faith is helpful.  It has become necessary to drastically limit exposure to media with negative narratives to deceive and divide.  We hear a lot of talk about how divided we are, but I think we are more deceived than divided.  We are seeing more and more good-willed people being decieved and believing things that simply are not true.  Don’t allow yourself to be one of them.  

Regardless of political party affiliation (or non-affiliation), we must take seriously our responsiblity to engage our system of government.  We must hold those in office and seeking office to standards of truth.  A quote by Edmond Burke I heard many years ago still rings true, “The only thing necessary for the evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.  History has proven this over and over again.  In the Germany of the 1930’s and 40’s, Deitrich Bonhoeffer also had it right when saying, “Not to speak, is to speak.  Not to act, is to act.”  Hitler’s lies deceived multitutdes because truth was treated casually. Speaking up and taking action are essential.  A person can only be a friend of truth by applying the truth in his or her own life, AND in everything touching their life.   Truth requires participation, or the foes of truth may win.  There is no middle ground. Truth and passivity cannot co-exist.

Prayer is important.  Uniting in prayer with others is also important (see PrayinUnity.org).  But prayer is not a substitute for action.  Becoming informed takes action,   A great source Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), has just launched a 24 hour news channel (see CBNNews.com).  Voting is a necessary action. I heard prayer warrior Cindy Jacobs say, “Voting is a spiritual act because, we are called to steward our nation.”   Some may be called to further action through service in elected or non-elected government offices.  

When I hearChristians say, “politics is not the answer, but Jesus is the answer,” I am in agreement.  However, politics is part of an answer that cannot be avoided.  Living out the Truth in all areas of life is commanded by Christ himself, in order to be called a follower of Christ.  Christ did not come to this earth to bring political revolution, but he did come to bring a counter revolution to political systems.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  The political arena is yet another sphere where the glory of God is meant to shine on the earth.  Let’s do our part in making it happen.  Pray, seek the truth, and take action!

by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry