The Election is NOT the Source of Your Anxiety
one
The uncertainty and the possibility of losing good things such as freedoms, health, a way of life, whether it do to the elections, Covid or some other external situation, can lead to an anger, fear and frustration that leaves us paralyzed.
Jesus tells us Do not be afraid, do not worry, do not be anxious.
Still we are. What are we missing?
Emotions such as anger, fear, despair rise within us to prompt us to do good or avoid evil. Sometimes those emotions rise within us and get stuck there - and we become paralyzed.
We can use external events to justify being stuck in anger, fear and frustration that really comes from us.
When this happens, it is vital to be grounded in reality.
In this meditation I will give you a five-fold strategy to do just that - to be grounded in reality.
First Strategy: Delight in all the good that is in your life. You were created by God with an immortal soul. You have God’s life dwelling withing you. You are a citizen of Heaven – your true homeland. We have homes, and food, and greater safety, stability and opportunity than 99.9 % of all humans that ever lived. We can order any food we want from insta-cart and its here in 2 hours. The birds at my bird bath are beautiful, the trees amazing, my wife and grown kids and grandkids are pure joy. The list is really endless if I stop and become aware of the good and delight in it and thank God for it.
two
The Second Strategy to be grounded in reality: Accept that that regardless of the external situation in the world, everything we value in this life is slipping away.
We can have anger, fear, sadness and become hopeless if we think the good things we love in this world like freedom, health, power to do things, loved ones, our way of life will be taken away.
Well, I can guarantee that is going to happen and it’s not because of this or that President or pandemic or some new world order. Everything worldly thing we value will slip away because everything in this world ends – it all slips away.
The reality is this, before we enter heaven, unless we die suddenly, we will experience a long process in which we will lose everything.
Even if Jesus Christ were the President of the United States for the next 100 years, every one of us, and really after about 60 years of age, will slowly lose our children, they grow up and move on to reach their full potential, thanks be to God; our strength begins to deteriorate, we can’t run as fast, lift as much, jump as high, heck I can barley make it over a jump rope now. We lose our energy – people in the 90s say they felt they lost energy with every decade. I don’t have the energy I had at 40 or 30 or 20 and I know I’ll have less at 60. As we get older our health fades. At some point we are not getting better. It is a long debilitating process until death. After a certain age, life is a process of losing worldly stuff: our freedom; our power to move, to think, to earn money, the ability to shape and move the world around you. We will lose quickly or slowly everything worldly think.
This reality is not changed by external events. It is going to happen no matter what.
But keep in mind, even though we lose all we value in this world at death; in the resurrection, and in the New Heaven and the New the New Earth, we get everything good thing back, in its perfected form, in an infinitely better and everlasting way. We just have to let go of it now to get it all back again.
If we accept that everything we value in this life is slipping away – then we don’t need to be anxious about any external situation in the world causing us to lose things we love, like freedoms and health or loved ones, because we have the internal guarantee of that reality already.
three
The Third strategy: since everything in this world is slipping away anyway then why not invest in what cannot be taken away. Invest in friendship with God and a greater union with him by a deeper more intimate life of prayer and sacramental life. Invest in the love and friendship of your spouse, kids, extended family, friends and even enemies. Invest in your fascination with truth, natural and supernatural truths. Invest in your appreciation of beauty. Since we eventually lose all we value in this world; then why not invest in what cannot be taken away.
four
The Fourth strategy to be grounded in reality is to buckle down and stay focused on doing our duties and responsibilities. Remember those days when we would procrastinate studying for a test and the more we procrastinated and tried to avoid the duty of studying the more anxious and paralyzed we became. It can be the same with all of life. The antidote is to do what were supposed to do every day; go to bed on time; get up on time, spend time in prayer and sacraments, work inside or outside the home, nurture relationships, exercise, grow in knowledge, and experience beauty in some form or other. Then surrender the rest to God by saying: Jesus I trust in you; take care of everything.
five
The fifth strategy to be grounded in reality is to remember that God works all things for good for those who love him. Trust in His providential care. You are safe.
Fear is the fuel of anger and anxiety. Take away the fuel and the anger and anxiety fades.
The fuel, meaning the fear, in our current societal situation comes from the media and our imagination not living in reality.
Our brains interpret what we are seeing as grave danger lurking everywhere. So your brain sends a message of anxiety. And then we add fuel by adding fear.
A simple way out of anxiety is to ground yourself in the reality - you are safe. I can say with confidence - You are safe. Well, how can I say that with such confidence? Because you are in the hands of God your Father and under the mantle of Mary. They will let nothing happen to you that won’t contribute to your greatest good. You are safe.