Being 'awake' without fear or depression

Can we gaze into the abyss of all that's wrong in the world without making ourselves unwell? - some lessons from Psalm 37

A few days ago someone wrote to me and said how they were feeling despondent about the state of the country and the world right now. I can totally sympathise. A lot of ‘normies’ (for want of a better, etc) are feeling pretty depressed — and I think it’s worse for those of us who have looked into just how bad things are.

A few weeks ago I watched Candace Owens’ series on Brigitte Macron, “Becoming Brigitte”. It’s bad enough to think that the first lady of France is actually a man, but knowing the kind of people that the Macrons surround themselves with is sickening. It made me think, “Forget Christian leaders - I’d settle for leaders who weren’t trying to plumb the depths of human depravity and sexual perversion!!”

One of the problems with being committed to seeking the truth about these things is that it confronts you with the twisted reality of human nature. You can’t look into ‘conspiracy theories’ and continue to believe that people are basically good. Especially the government! It totally confirms Lord Acton’s famous dictum about absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Another problem is that it causes you to question everything you thought you knew. A couple of weeks ago I saw a piece come up on Substack about the moon landings — something I hadn’t really looked into before. It turns out that the moon landings were almost certainly faked. The piece started out by talking about worldview, and how fundamental it is to people’s worldview to believe that things like the moon landings really happened — and how difficult it is to conclude otherwise. It’s deeply unsettling when we discover that something we have believed to be a fact since childhood turns out to be a pack of lies.

I suspect this is the reason that most people simply don’t want to look into the truth: it’s too painful. They don’t want to see the sin and depravity of the human heart — it’s much easier to think that most people are generally nice. And they don’t want the pain of realising that so much of what they believe has been based on lies. I suspect the biggest reason that ‘conspiracy theories’ remain a fringe minority view is because most people don’t want to believe them. The truth is too disruptive, so people find reasons to avoid it. That’s how it was for me for many years before covid finally pushed me over — I couldn’t avoid it any more. This is simply another example of cognitive bias — that is, people will be persuaded by arguments that they were already predisposed to believe without really looking at the evidence.

So far, so predictable. However, the question still remains: for those of us who are aware of the lies — or at least, some of them (every time I think I’m getting to the bottom of the rabbit hole, it gets deeper) — how do we respond? The fact remains that the truth IS deeply unsettling, and being a ‘conspiracy theorist’ doesn’t suddenly give you the ability to process and respond to the truth correctly.

Let me start by outlining some of the unhelpful responses that we in the sceptical / ‘truth’ community can demonstrate.

Unhelpful responses to the truth

#1: Despondency / depression

It’s easy to be despondent looking at the world today. There’s enough bad news even in the mainstream media for anyone to feel down, let alone looking past the headlines and seeing some of the things going on behind the scenes. Personally, the thing that depresses me the most is the fact that what is happening to us is not an accident but is part of some kind of globalist agenda. Our elites seem to have a new religion, they’re here to accomplish “good” (in their eyes), and they will stop at nothing until it is complete.

It makes me think of these famous remarks from C.S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
— God in the Dock

How much we are suffering under “moral busybodies”!

It makes me angry when I look at our electricity bill — the highest prices in the world — knowing that we are paying for the government’s Net Zero fantasies. It makes me angry when I see more ‘woke’ nonsense being pushed by our institutions. It makes me angry when I see Islam being promoted. It makes me angry when I see women suffering a huge rise in sexual assault due to mass migration. On and on it goes.

It makes me angry — but then, it makes me depressed, because I realise there’s nothing I can do. We, the people, live in a pseudo-democracy: that is, something which bears the name of democracy, but where the people in charge can basically do what they like without accountability. If we learned anything during covid, it is that the real power comes from non-democratic bodies (like the WEF, WHO, UN, and so on) — unelected and unaccountable organisations who do not have to answer to an electorate.

It’s hard to see these things and remain unaffected by it. At the same time, I think some people DO remain unaffected — which leads me on to the second example.

#2: Extreme cynicism

I’ve met some people who are distrustful of just about anybody and anything. They don’t trust the government, they don’t trust the media, they don’t trust anything ‘official’. Their opinion of humanity could not be any lower. Every time they hear of something terrible the authorites have done they roll their eyes and say “I told you so.”

These people tend to be checked out of politics completely — “what’s the point? It’s all rigged anyway.” They don’t really care about anyone or anything beyond their immediate circle.

I appreciate that I’m painting a very bleak picture here, but I think there is more than a grain of truth in it.

#3: Fear

Fear is a very natural reaction when we understand that there are people in charge who do not have our best interests at heart. I think we all as human beings have an instinctive desire for security — we like to know that we will be able to provide for ourselves, to feed and clothe ourselves and our loved ones. When the future is uncertain, fear is natural — but that goes double when you understand that the future seems to be in the hands of psychopaths and people with dangerous ideologies.

I witnessed this during covid: the mainstream media were encouraging people to be fearful of covid in order to gain their compliance. But it seemed to me there was an equal and opposite reaction for those who saw through the narrative — fear of authoritarianism. I think a lot of people in the sceptical community were fearful: fearful of different things to most of the population for sure, but fearful nonetheless.

#4: Uncertainty about what to do

When confronted with something evil happening at the highest levels of government, it’s natural to want to do something about it. At the same time, it can be very difficult to know what to do practically speaking. Earlier on I was watching an excellent podcast from James Corbett about ‘algocracy’ (government by algorithms). It’s well worth watching if you have 50 minutes. But he finished the podcast by basically saying… there may be nothing we can do about all of this.

Many of us feel impotent in the face of the many evils we see going on in the world. We feel small and powerless in the face of global corporations and empires. This feeling of powerlessness feeds the previous items on this list — the fact that there’s nothing really we CAN do simply exacerbates the other negatives.

A Christian response: Lessons from Psalm 37

I believe that all these things are ‘natural’ ways of responding to the evils of the world. However, the fact that they are natural doesn’t mean they are right for Christians — Christians are called to be different. It is not right for Christians to be despondent, or cynical, or fearful. Christians also need not feel impotent in the fact of what is happening in the world.

A couple of weeks ago I read Psalm 37 again, and it struck me afresh how it’s a wonderful lesson for us in how we should respond to what’s going on in the world. Let me draw out a few lessons for us. We won’t have time to go through the whole thing, so you may also like to read the whole Psalm as it’s very encouraging.

#1: See things from a bigger perspective

The psalm begins like this:

Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

One of the problems with suffering is that, when you’re in the middle of it, it seems to go on forever. If you’re in some kind of pain, that’s what dominates your mind until it’s over. It can be like that with seeing the evil going on in the world: we see the rise of these globalist empires, these unaccountable moral busybodies, and it seems like they are invincible.

However, we need to remember what things look like from God’s perspective: “soon” they will die away. We may be inclined to say, like the Smiths, How Soon is Now? (And, indeed, some of the Psalms do indeed ask that kind of question — “How Long, O Lord?”). But God’s answer is always, “soon”. He will not let the wicked be in ascendancy forever — in fact, their days will be as the grass with soon withers.

The wicked will be like the character of Boris in GoldenEye:

#2: Laugh at the wicked

The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
vv12-13

The Lord “laughs” at the wicked — because he knows what is lying in wait for them. To God, all the wicked schemes and plans of mankind are absurd and ridiculous. As if mankind in his craftiness and scheming is capable of outwitting God!

It’s very tempting when we are confronted by things going on — such as the ‘algocracy’ which James Corbett mentioned — to fear. But God doesn’t fear, he laughs! He knows that these plans ultimately will come to nothing. In fact, God is capable of turning their plans against them. The next verses go on:

The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.
But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
vv14-15

The wicked draw the sword against the righteous — but look what happens! It ends up piercing their own hearts. This is a recurrent theme within the Psalms, what the late biblical scholar Alec Motyer called “the boomerang effect of evil”. The wicked intend to do evil, but it rebounds on their own heads.

We’ve seen an example of this recently: Justin Welby, who threw the likes of George Bell under the bus due to spurious safeguarding allegations, was himself forced to resign over safeguarding issues. It is, as they say, poetic justice. The good news for Christians is that poetic justice is not simply something satisfying that occurs from time to time: it is the ultimate end of all evil.

#3: Trust in God’s protection

The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
intent on putting them to death;
but the Lord will not leave them in the power of the wicked
or let them be condemned when brought to trial.

vv18-19, 32-33

One of the biggest problems, as I said above, is not knowing what will happen. Will there be food shortages? Will there be blackouts? Will there be attacks on Christians?

There may be all those things — but God will protect those who trust him. That doesn’t mean there won’t be hard times, persecution, even martyrs. History demonstrates that Christians are often targeted, and throughout the world Christians are being killed for their faith. However, this doesn’t alter the fact that God does protect those who trust and obey him. Whether that protection means enabling us to stand up under persecution, or whether it means keeping us safe from physical harm, we can trust it to him.

“Do not fear” is the most common command in the Bible, and it is because believers can trust in God for his protection no matter what .We can face the future without fear.

#4: Continue to do good

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
vv3-4

As I said above, one of the worst problems with being aware of what’s going on in the world is not knowing how to respond. When you see the evil going on in the powers that be, our own lives seem very small by comparison. But what I love about this Psalm is that it says our own lives are not irrelevant. We should trust in the Lord and do good. The good that we do, the love that we share, where we have opportunity is blessed by God.

God has ordained that the most powerful thing in the world is not technocrats, oligarchs and the rest, deciding what will happen from their ivory towers. They matter not to God’s plans. Instead, the most powerful thing in the world is the likes of you and me loving others in our own small way, as we have opportunity. It may not seem like much, but in God’s eyes it is the most valuable thing there is. I truly believe that it is love which will change the world, at the end of the day — love which comes from God.

I’m not trying to make a facile point about “let’s all be nice to each other for a change”. I’m saying that love comes from God, and if we walk with him and trust in him then the love that he gives will be more powerful than the darkness: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). Which side is the winning side in all this? God’s side. To be on God’s side means to live in love.

Conclusion

I appreciate that there’s far more to say about all this, and if there’s anything you find particularly helpful please let me know in the comments.

I’d like to conclude with one recommendation, which is simply to read a Psalm every day. Many of the Psalms are like Psalm 37, which speak of the protection and vindication of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked. They encourage us not to fear and to trust in God instead. If you’ve appreciated Psalm 37, why not try reading the others and seeing where you get?

If you need some help getting going in the Psalms, I can wholeheartedly recommend Alec Motyer’s book Psalms by the Day. It’s probably the most helpful book I have on the Psalms — it will be a breath of fresh air whether you are a newbie to the Psalms or more experienced. It is absolutely well worth your time.

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