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In 2021, Stop Complaining
It’s become a sport online, complaining about the year 2020. Yeah, it hasn’t been easy for anyone. But there’s a subsection of folks who haven’t really had a hard year, but who spend the bulk of their time complaining about it. They don’t know anyone close to them who have gotten sick or died (of anything), they haven’t lost any income; their lives are largely unaffected outside of missed vacations. And yet, 2020 has been the worst year of their lives, and they do nothing but tell you about it on the Internet.
And here we are in the dead of winter in December and they’re miserable. And I believe they are because they’ve psyched themselves into that misery over the course of the last nine months. They’ve told themselves they’re miserable so much, they’ve started to internalize that narrative.
Compare this behavior with the folks I know who have actually lost income or loved ones, and who are resiliently working through the challenges 2020 has thrown them. How often do you see folks like this wallowing in their misery, constantly posting memes about 2020? Very infrequently.
That’s for a reason. Resilient people don’t spend their time obsessing about the curveballs life has thrown them, they focus on overcoming them. And so, if this year hasn’t brought severe and tragic disruption to your life and yet managed to be the worst year of your life, focus on the fact that your life up until this point has been truly blessed, and in 2021, the sky is the limit on the return of normalcy. My advice to anyone going through trauma of any kind applies to 2020: Fake it until you make it. Your mind is the most powerful weapon you own; don’t turn it against yourself.
Published in General
But this still leaves the question unanswered. For what are you fighting? What does victory look like?
My “office-visit” copayment is only $45, but I’m not interested in paying that when they can’t even check my blood pressure and pulse. So I say that I’m not set up for video stuff – which is technically accurate, I’d have to get a USB extension for my webcam, but mostly I just don’t want to – and I just get my prescriptions refilled. If at some point they re-open their office, then I’ll deal with the fact that I’m not even in Arizona any more, but for now that isn’t an issue.
It’s right there in the Apostle’s Creed:
We believe that not only will our unique immortal souls live forever, but even our bodies will be raised from the grave and reunited with our souls.
Actually, my complaining is faking it in a sense.
My wife and I are (so far, fingers crossed) comfortably off in retirement. We’re able to give a leg up for our children, and will soon be looking at steps to start a fund for our grandson’s post-high school education. However, I complain about the way things are going in general in this country because people are hurting, and the forces of leftism are taking advantage of the overall misery to further their agenda. Unless a rabbit gets pulled out of a hat, Biden will get into office and all Hell is going to break loose, especially if the Dems get the Senate.
Complaining may be all we have left after the Georgia election . . .
Why would you need your body if your soul is in heaven or whatever?
To eat bacon.
Do you really expect people to read all the way to the third sentence of a post?
I made clear my stance on complaining, but it’s really something to see people pounce on Bethany Mandel, the OG Granny killer, for not knowing or caring about the devastating effects of lockdown.
Is that how rabbis convince their followers to remain kosher? No pork in this lifetime, but once you die, you’re in for an eternity of bacon.
.
Eternity of Bacon sounds like an indie rock band I’d hate.
Or maybe a vegan’s version of hell?
Hipster prog rock tribute band.
It was specifically directed at Skip’s reference to martyrs not holding on to false hope. He made it sound like they weren’t hoping for anything.
And I agree with you, that there are human needs that God has given his blessing to satisfy on this earth, primarily being human relationship. Where the world interferes in those, we suffer. And we have a need for those relationships to comfort us and encourage us through our time on earth. And these relationships are not transient.
But even so, where we lack, he sustains. And sure, easier said than done. But the only thing we can cling to in worldly deprivation and suffering is that Christ promises more to us at the end of this suffering. That our suffering is not in vain, and that we will find a place in his eternal kingdom when we breathe our last.
That’s what sustains the martyrs.
I’m not going to claim to have mastered such zen. I’ve only managed to find peace in whatever the future holds while still being presently comfortable. If I suffer presently, and maintain such hope, we can have a different conversation if you can find me.
That’s a very Protestant view of history and generational inheritance.
Well you can’t really accuse me of that, now can you?
The struggle that K hints at, I think, is where I’d love of neighbor if your inaction leads to their suffering? Just how have you loved a neighbor if you stand by while a bully beats on him?
There is some need for action, the frustration is what action and what is right action? Maybe the right thing to do is to put yourself between the bully’s fists and your neighbor and not lift a hand to defend yourself?
There’s the sometimes contradiction that we are at once called to witness to those who suffer AND witness to our enemies. And sometimes witness is better facilitated by easing earthly suffering in some way. And the martyrs witnessed to their enemies by dying with forgiveness on their lips. How many prison guards through history have found salvation through the patient suffering of an innocent prisoner?
The revolutionaries found love of neighbor in securing their freedom from a tyrannical government. The question has been asked and answered in many ways through history. This is just one more iteration.
No, I am pointing out that purely material achievements are perishable.
It seems to happen in movies occasionally, but probably not so much in real life.
There’s a good number of witness accounts if you go looking for them.