Transcript:

Hey my friends,

I wanted to come on here and just share a few thoughts about the days in which we find ourselves.

You’re obviously heartbroken right now. You’re grieving. You’re frustrated. You’re angry. And all of that can lead you into a place of despair, hopelessness, resignation.

Now, I know that because I’m in the same boat. I’m feeling all the same stuff that you’re feeling.

I wake up on many days and don’t recognize the country that I live in anymore. And yet, the heartbreak that you’re experiencing, that I’m experiencing, I want you to remember that that’s actually a good and really beautiful thing.

Because the fact that you are so deeply disturbed by what is going ont means that your empathy is still working. It means that you still are a human being doing what a human being is supposed to do.

Be aware of the pain around you and to move toward that pain. You know, I tell people all the time, are you frustrated? Are you pissed off? Are you scared? Are you worried?Well, congratulations. That’s actually good news. Because right now, what we’re seeing is a movement of tremendous cruelty, a disregard for other people, a refusal to love someone’s neighbor. And while we feel all that, that’s a reminder that we are here to do exactly what we’d see not being done by so many.

And so as difficult as it is to watch the news and to be aware of what’s happening and to feel that deeply, I don’t want you to turn away from it.

Sure you need some time to protect yourself to get rest to recalibrate those times of solitude those times of community being in nature and prayer and meditation and rest and all of those things they’re critical however i want you to keep coming back to what’s in front of you and to let it break your heart.

Peeople ask me about, “What do I do right now, John?”

Well, the what we should be doing first is feeling deeply and then it’s following that burden. This isn’t a mystery. It isn’t as nebulous as we think it is. Solving the problems right now are about getting up every day and paying attention and hearing people’s stories and knowing what’s going on and then feeling all of that. And then doing what I ask people to do all the time, follow the burden. Whatever it is that breaks your heart and boils your blood, whatever keeps you up at night, whatever people groups you are drawn to, whatever causes you feel deeply, that should instruct you.

And then, begin to figure out where and how in my local community, right where I am, maybe without even leaving my home, where and how can I do something to be a help, to be a caregiver, to be a reassuring voice?

So I just wanted to take a couple seconds and acknowledge how heavy these days are, the reality that it is terrible, and yet to not tire of feeling as deeply as you do because that is the greatest asset you have in a world where cruelty is trending.

So please hold on to that burden in the center of your chest because it is the antidote to all that afflicts us. So, thanks for spending some time with me tonight.

And just, just be encouraged.

Keep going.

Peace.

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