These are tense times for our country. Everyone is on pins and needles. You can see it in their eyes. There’s a little sliver of fear right behind the eye causing the eye to dart when a sound interrupts whatever is going on. Would that we all had Secret Service protection around the clock.

Our election is right around the corner and we’ve already had an assassination attempt on one of the candidates and a geriatric attempt on the other. This is a time when there are simply no guarantees anywhere. And all this in a time when the polarization in this country has never been more pronounced.

What to do?

It’s easy to think any one of us is too insignificant to do anything about this, but that is simply not true. We can live differently. And whether it effects any change on those around us, it will definitely change us. We can offer the opposite of what is being dished out in large portions on the internet and other forms of the media. We could start by answering hate with love, returning good for evil, combat judgment with forgiveness, mercy for revenge, grace over a grudge, prayer instead of power, and gratitude for greed. Each one of these is nothing short of a major transformation. In every case, one of these choices comes easy because it is natural, fleshly, of the earth, while the other is spiritual, faith-driven, and of heaven. These are profound changes and none of them are possible without a radical change of heart that can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit in us.

I’m trying to focus on these changes, even with attitudes I keep to myself. Who does it help if I condemn someone in my heart, but don’t tell anyone. I am only hurting myself, and keeping my heart from being soft. Besides, we become what we think in our heart. “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7). Change starts with us.