The Great Shaking - Part 1

There has already arisen a time of people’s core beliefs and values being tested and shaken. The current “unrest” and world-wide “uneasiness” will continue to place stress on the already shattered lives of those who placed their hope and future into the hands of others. Many people continue to feel that their lives are completely out of their control and furthermore feel that their lives have become pawns in a greater game of chance. It has always been humanity’s greatest source of contention, anxiety, and stress when we feel that our life is no longer our own and that external circumstance now dictate our actions in a way contrary to our personal desires. But herein lays the importance of realizing how true “freedom” and “happiness” are perpetuated in a democratic society.

Firstly, we must fully realize that the last of the human freedoms is to choose our “attitude.” Many things can be taken from an individual but the last of the human freedoms is the choice of how you will ultimately let circumstances shape you. The worst fallacy that anyone can fall into during this these “difficult times” is a victimization mindset. There is nothing wrong with freely admitting and realizing that some things may have “beset” you that were not fair - but to continue in this “attitude” only empowers the individual or thing that firstly victimized you and this will only continue to strip you of your own dignity, freedom, and happiness. Most individuals who have been “wronged” by an individual or institution do not desire to continue to empower the very “thing” that “victimized” them – yet this is exactly what we do if we continue in a victimization mindset.

This may appear as a silly “mind-game” but our attitude directly affects our actions, which directly affect our lives, which directly affects our community, which directly affects our country. Thankfully God has given us the ability to dictate and control such an important aspect of our lives (i.e. Phil 4:8)

Victimization in the form of fear and uncertainty will come at you in many various forms during these “uncertain times.” The reason? Because it empowers the individual or institution that is perpetuating it. This is why the first step we must take in regaining a sense of hope is the realization that God has blessed us with the ability to decide our “attitude” and subsequent approach during difficult times. We have been blessed with a free democracy which allows us to “pick ourselves up by our boot straps” and be free from a perpetual victimized mindset.

The second part of this article will deal with how freedom and happiness can only be perpetuated through the sacrificial giving of oneself to their community and country.