Election Fatigue

One of my favorite parts of the presidential debates is being logged in on Facebook and watching people's statuses throughout! You get to see who wanted to throw something, who marks one moment as a key moment, and who is just worn out by it all. Last night was no different. But one thing I saw last night for the first time was someone posting that they weren't watching the debate and really couldn't care less.

Indeed, aren't we all getting a bit worn out by it all? The campaign tied with the economic crisis seems to throws such highs, lows, and repetativeness at us that it's like we don't even know how to respond to anything anymore. And it's infecting all of us!

I'm actually interested to talk to the teachers I know--this week were parent-teacher conferences, and I'm interested to find out if teachers are seeing the same increase in stress and anxiety (which comes out as anger, illogical-ness and general grumpiness) in parents as other leaders like pastors are seeing with the people they work with. It was little suprise to most pastors when the American Psychological Association announced that stress level in our country have reach record heights, along with high levels of bad ways to cope with stress. What is perhaps most dangerous is the insiduous way stress wratchets up the tension all around us, so that we enter even neutral situations predisposed to stress, and are even less able to deal effectively and maturely with other difficult situations in our lives. Our nation truly does need to step back and take a deep breath!

A couple weeks ago, our DISCIPLE class at church read through the creation accounts, and as always, it was interesting to hear different takes on passages I've read before. One class member talked about reading the repetative "God said...and it was good" in the context of being a parent, and knowing how important routine and order is to children.--and how they need to be reassured. She pointed out that God's words here seem to offer that same comfort, "It's good. I've got it under control, and I know what I'm doing. It will be okay. It's good." I think that's a message we all need to hear right now.