Fear, Faith and Happiness
By James Simpson
Potomac News
July 24, 2007

We seem to be suffering from a serious disconnect in the United States. Unlike most of the rest of the world, we live in relative safety and comfort. We still have a (reasonably) free press. There are shelters for the homeless. No one needs go hungry as there are millions providing food one way or another to those who have none. We don’t live in grass huts, we have the convenience of air conditioning and heating. We are free to travel about the country. And unlike most of the world, we are not in, or on the border of, a war zone.

Yet for all the conveniences and comfort we have, Americans are still … dissatisfied, depressed, angry, resentful, and discontent. A report came out last week indicating that Americans are continuing to gain weight. According to an article on Reuters regarding the Johns Hopkins University study, “If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.”

Anyone who drives in the area knows how dangerous it can be. People are out of control on the highways. And just walking in my community can be frightening as the cars fly by at almost twice the posted speed. Everyone is in a rush, with many who are just drifting through life, not truly enjoying life. It is a shame. We have such a short time on the planet, yet people seem to squander so much of it by focusing on things that aren’t important.

So why is it that we can’t seem to be happy about what we have and where we live? What makes Americans so upset that we are killing ourselves with stress and overeating? Why is it that we pay so much attention to the people in Hollywood? Why do we care what they do? Yet there are tons of magazines, and shows, that people buy every day feeding the dirt on who is doing what. And rather than getting out and experiencing life, we now watch an unprecedented number of shows on other people’s lives … these are ironically termed “reality television”.

Personally I believe we have lost our faith. Every day I see more and more evidence that we are losing the Christian heritage that made our nation great. All that satan needs is a little leverage and he can really do a number on an individual. But the tools used are never obvious; he uses clever and disguised methods.

His minions are jealousy, hatred, anger, frustration, and fear. We get angry at someone who isn’t observant of the light change. We get irritated by the person who takes forever at the automated teller machine. We are jealous of those who can afford larger houses, or who are able to drive expensive cars. We get frustrated at our children not paying attention or misbehaving.

Five years ago my father passed away. He suffered a long time, going into ICU a year earlier and barely surviving. His recovery took months. (I plan on writing another column about the experience in the near future, so I will not go into details here.) I visited the hospital ICU every day and had a difficult time dealing with what he went through and the loss I felt when he passed. This is when I allowed fear to grip me and allowed satan a strong foothold into my life.

Until recently, I lived my life in fear. This has caused me to not live life to the fullest, and it has caused me to miss out on more than I care to think about. All this because my lack of faith allowed evil into my life.

Unfortunately, I suspect, we are not going to see things get better unless we stop the march toward atheism and agnosticism, and return to the core beliefs and values that our country was founded upon. Right now we have so many people who are so filled with anger and hate that it is difficult to see beyond those emotions.

One of the greatest tools we have to fight against the darkness is forgiveness. (Again … a topic upon which I plan to devote an entire column to in the near future). The first thing to do is forgive yourself. Then forgive others who have wronged you … and this is not a one time thing. We need to learn to forgive others throughout the day. And we should ask for forgiveness and offer apologies when we have wronged another. This is not weakness, but strength. And most importantly, it is one way to combat the tools used against us in the never-ending war waged for our souls.

James Simpson lives in Lake Ridge.