We don’t like change. We don’t like the potential of pain entering into our lives like a knife in the dark waiting to cut away everything we have known. Or thought we knew.
We don’t like messes. We fill up our linen closets with everything from extra paper towels and magical mirror cleaners to anti-bacterial sprays for our dirty counters and detergents for our stained clothing.
We worship our current invention marvels, smartphones and televisions, just like they used to worship William Murdoch and his invention of the gas light. After Murdoch it was Thomas Edison and his beauty, that changed everything from humanity’s work ethic to how we go to bed. Because some of us would rather die before admitting that we are still afraid of the dark.
And of silence.
Not a day goes by when I don’t hear at least two noises at once. Some of the noises, like electricity, I have been hearing ever since I was born. The low hum buzz. I’m not sure I could even describe it to you much more than that, because I don’t think I could ever not hear it. I often wonder what it was like for the people living in the 19th century. Could they describe how still the air was before the switch turned on? How thin their secrets felt before the noise drafted in through their open parlor window?
But no matter how terrified we humans become about change, it is most necessary and sometimes, it is what is most needed.
Stop blowing off your nervousness as something that happens to everyone. Stop labeling it something just so you can mend it with medication.
Call it what it is: fear.
According to several talking heads on TV and the opinions of quite a few Facebook posts, this world seems to be taking a turn for the worst. It seems we are all going to Hell in a hand basket, if you ask any cranky grandpa who is on a strict diet for his diabetes.
Currently, in America, we have a few individuals running for the leader of our country. All around I see my peers rolling their eyes and cursing at their shoes, saying how much they hate either of the prominent two. My friends sound strong in their assessments and views, all while inside their chests, their hearts are aching. Almost pleading, that this isn’t the end. If truth were told, they would give almost anything to make sure that their moms and dads aren’t correct, when they hear how doomed our country is, in-between the “pass the butter” at the dinner table.
It’s true, we see more corruption everyday than they did 50, 100, or 200 years ago. Why? Because it’s more accessible. Social media seems to be a huge player in this world of increasing knotted stomachs and lumps in our throats. We aren’t immune to hearing our own worries anymore but that of China and of Berlin and of the cute boy we had a crush on in sixth grade, we know his wars too.
We can’t always change the world. We can’t turn out the lights and block out the noise, but we change one thing.
We can change us.
We can change our hearts to be seeking the good. The right. Begging God not to make the world safe, but to make us strong. When we feel scared, that we ask for him to make us bold. When we feel those familiar chills of fear, we ask for his help instead of hiding behind the word anxiety or the excuse that it happens to everyone. We ask for his peace to fill our lives. When lies get us ensnared, we pray for his truth to prevail.
True freedom comes when we stop praying for our situations or for our circumstances to change, and we start praying for us to change instead.
We are never going to be 100% fearless, but instead of praying that all the bad will all go away, I urge you to ask with me for bravery, courage and above all, to take home the truth that we are never alone and bury that deep within our hearts.
