Many of us look around at the instability, brutality and leaking confidence everywhere, and we dread what may be coming. “It feels like chaos out there,” former US attorney Joyce Vance wrote last week in her daily posting.
And then Notre Dame reopens in splendor, Assad goes into hiding with his fellow mass murderer, and we think maybe there is hope. At least for a day. At least for one news cycle.
But why should hope depend on the news, where rage and ecstasy clash incessantly and the light of peace seems mostly a tease? What if, instead, we sought truth in a different vision of reality, one rooted in moral action and an understanding of God’s love and our own inherent goodness. As the Bible puts it, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”1 Where there is hope, people thrive.
The other day I participated in an exchange on LinkedIn with some communications experts who were discussing how to interest an audience of businesspeople in new ideas for marketing campaigns.
“Appeal to what’s in it for them,” one person suggested. The idea, of course, is that people pay attention when self-interest is paramount.
I see it differently, I wrote back. Instead of appealing to self-interest, help people reach for something higher. Inspire them with insights into the noblest capacities of their customers and colleagues and even themselves. Generosity. Kindness. Joy. Give people hope. Why shouldn’t marketing be inspiring? Creating inspiring marketing campaigns is never easy, but I’m convinced we can lift people up and open their vision to much greater things if we try.
Why shouldn’t the news of the world be inspiring, too. Each of us, as a news consumer or maybe news producer, is part of the chain of healing in the world.
What does it mean to inspire others? Christ Jesus called it preaching the gospel. This doesn’t mean trying to convert people to your religion against their will. Preaching the gospel happens when you have proved moral and spiritual power so emphatically in your own life that you can inspire others to do the same. It means opening a door in the structure of Truth and Love (see last week’s column) that stands firm against the storms of life.
Commentator Tim Miller of The Bulwark understands how important the quality of moral courage can be in dealing with the news of today:
There is one thing that does matter in this life. And it’s the only thing you actually control: Acting in accordance with your own integrity. In a way that lets you feel good about yourself....
Sometimes it’s really hard. Painful, even. And you won’t always get it right. We all fail. We have blind spots. Temptations. Pride. We convince ourselves that something we want is actually something that is right for us.
That’s okay. As long as you are still keeping tabs and trying to become the best version of yourself.
So, in short, what matters is you. Your choices. Your integrity....
And then he adds, with a particular character in the news in mind:
I refuse to let Donald Trump take that away from me.... At this point [he] has conquered the world. But your soul is the one thing that he can’t have . . . unless you give it to him.
Like Miller, whether journalists or average citizens, we have a choice on how we respond to the news. If we do it right, we can help plant peace on earth, beginning right where we are.
I wrote two weeks ago that the objective of the coming American government appears to be “to divide the country and exacerbate the fear so that no one and no party can reinstate a nation undivided.” Nothing has happened since then to change the picture. In fact, the threats have become even sharper. But we can fight the threats and fear and prove their powerlessness through our own moral courage. The result, if we stay the course, will be the breakup of seemingly unstoppable evil, the ascension of astonishing beauty like that of Notre Dame, and more inspiring news like we had last weekend. The justification for hope is out there if we look.
As we move toward Christmas, here is an excerpt from a lovely essay by Darya Zorka, a Belarusian writer and poet who writes in order to “[bridge] the gap between people’s hearts and words.” She has endured much pain these past three years because of war in her world, but here she writes about the strength of a single spiritual quality. By living it, she is creating her own news, and it is helping her, and perhaps others, to resist evil:
The Russian invasion of Ukraine split my life into before and after. My husband’s family became refugees and fled their home. My friends went to war. My beloved cities are terrorized and mutilated by Russian missiles daily. My native country, Belarus, became an accomplice in the war crimes. At first, I was in shock, which changed into guilt, then anger, then disappointment, and then it mixed all together and settled as a permanent part of my heart – grief. Forever hurting and forever present. However, as I felt it in my chest, I noticed that there was something else. I looked closer and noticed joy. It wasn’t the joy I knew before – beaming, naive, and frail. The joy that came with grief was quiet, warm, and strong. I didn’t think it was possible to feel joy when there was so much pain around, but I was mistaken. It is not only possible. It is necessary. Joy protects us from the darkness and apathy that evil brings.
Let’s nurture joy in our hearts this holiday season, no matter how hard the times are, because joy is one of the ways of resistance.
Joy to the world, and be not afraid.
Proverbs 29:18