The Clarity of Adversity

“But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies--trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe.” (Hosea 10:13 NLT)

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were a time of great tumult in our nation. John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were assassinated. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. Protesters against the Vietnam War swarmed the streets of many U.S. cities. Nixon resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment. Instability reigned.

Our nation is, once again, in a cycle of chaos. We are inundated with news of political corruption, civil unrest, racial and social divisiveness, and threats of nuclear war. Wickedness and lies govern. In this constant state of turmoil, confusion and uncertainty have become commonplace. Can anything good come from all this misery?

Adversity can be clarifying. Illusions of moral superiority are demolished. It forces us out of the lull of complacency. It defines what we hold important. It shrinks our pride.  Harking back to simpler times is a poor excuse. Things have never been simple; some of us just had sheltered lives. Apathy and ignorance are no longer options. Averting  our eyes to injustice does not make us any less complicit. We cannot afford to be distracted while our surroundings burn.