May 30, 2020
A pandemic has taken the lives of over 350,000 people worldwide and crippled the economies of the world in less than 90 days. Unemployment rates have soared to record highs across the world. In the United States, to add to the fear and uncertainty, public outrage and protests have spread across the United States because of a video of police officers restraining a Black man which resulted in his death. The officers refused to respond to the cries of onlookers who pleaded with one of the officers to take his knee from the neck of the man who repeatedly said that he could not breathe. Despite the pleas, the officer held his knee on the man’s neck for six minutes and an additional two minutes after his body appeared to be lifeless. Certainly, this reads like the opening of a novel, a movie, or a sci-fi drama, and this only describes a fraction of the things that have shifted or gone awry in our world in less than 5 months in 2020.
While my emotions where drawn to the surface watching recent events and seeing the resurrection of latent fears and hatred, I am convinced that self-discipline and self-rule are needed now more than ever. I have been in the position of letting my buttons be pushed by injustice, unfairness, or simply my ego needs, over the course of my life. I have tried to understand racism, gang violence, colonialism, greed, hatred, and bullying from both sides and the middle. I have tried to explain one side to the other from an intellectual, emotional, economic, logistical, and spiritual point of view.
While there is enough going on in this world to push every button we have, I believe that if we discipline ourselves, we will discover that our buttons of self-destruction can be eliminated, and that God is ready, willing, and able to help us achieve success in this world. I believe God has already revealed the plan and the outcome to humanity, and I am no longer willing to engage in polemics with people, a nation, or world who are so self-absorbed that they seem to be determined to self-destruct.