Detachment

You know by now that the United States launched a missile attack on Syria last week.  I’m not going to tell you what to think about that.  I’m not even sure what I think about it.  Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, obviously.  But it just seems to me that there are a lot of things having to do with this that I don’t know.  And that makes it really hard for me to have an opinion about it.

What I want to talk about, though, is my reaction when I first heard about it.  If you’re not interested in my reaction, feel free to stop reading.  Go on to the enclosed sermon, which has nothing to do with this.  But my reaction, when I heard about the attack, was basically, “Oh.  Okay.  Whatever.”  And I went on with what I was doing.

Understand, I’m not saying this was a good reaction.  I’m certainly not saying it’s the reaction you or anyone else should have.  I’m pretty sure it’s not the reaction I should have.  But if I’m honest, that was my reaction.  And to be honest, a week later, it still pretty much is my reaction.  I just have a feeling of detachment about the whole thing.

Why?  Well, part of it is simply my powerlessness in this situation.  I have no way to influence what we do in Syria.  I have no way to influence what Syria does in response.  Things will happen as they will.  I can pray about it, and I do and have.  I’m sure lots of other people have, too.  But what, if anything, God will do in response to those prayers is up to God.

But part of it, I think, is that I’m losing my ability to be very concerned about anything I hear on the news any more.  It seems like every day--for months now, maybe longer--we’ve heard something on the news that we’re told we’re supposed to be really, really concerned about.  And sometimes I truly have been concerned.  But I just can’t be concerned about everything.  Maybe I should be able to, I don’t know.  But I can’t.  I’m not sure anyone can.

It’s like I’ve become numb to it.  Or maybe immune is a better word.  If everything is a major concern, then nothing is really a major concern.  And then, when something comes along that I probably should be really concerned about, I just can’t do it.  It becomes just noise, part of the constant noise of daily living.  It’s not that I’m ignoring the current situation.  But I’m watching it with, again, somewhat of a detached feeling.

Again, I’m not promoting this as a good attitude.  But I don’t know what to do about it, either.  I don’t think it’s possible to force yourself to feel something you don’t actually feel, even if you think you should feel it.  

So I guess what I’ll try to do is what I’ve said before.  I’ll try to affect the things I can affect.  I’ll try to help the people I can help.  I’ll try to be there for the people I can be there for.  I’ll try to show love to the people I can show love to.  And I guess I’ll just have to put the rest of it in God’s hands.

But at least those are pretty good hands to put it in.