We live at a point in time characterized by an unfamiliar uncertainty of a sort which generates great unease, worry, and far too much catastrophizing.

There are plenty of reasons why this is the case.

The most obvious is that there is an upcoming national election. Whichever candidate wins, about 35% of Americans will be thrilled, another 35% will be incredibly disappointed and deflated, the rest will ignore the outcome as same ole same ole and return to their daily lives as though nothing earth-shattering actually happened. The losing side may threaten civil disobedience, the courts will be overwhelmed with litigation, and more Americans will lose faith in our system of government. Many will despair that the American dream is but a mirage.

Many will retreat to social media where truth telling is increasingly rare, clever folk with no expertise or training use their cleverness to pass themselves off as experts to spread all kinds of nonsensical historical revisionism, personal attacks, bad advice, and “foil-hat level” craziness. Social media (which the vast majority of Americans thankfully ignore) is now a place for the “very on-line” where treating others as divine image-bearers is taken as a sign of weakness (or unmanliness).

And there are too many bad actors in the world. In many places on the globe, war is a reality and an increasing threat to our national peace and security (with possible escalation and American boots on the ground). Think of Putin’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, the Middle East situation (Iran and Israel, particularly), and the looming possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

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