The Twin Antidotes to Our Current Crises, and Why They Work So Well

The Twin Antidotes to the Chaos That Surrounds Us Are Empathy and Compassion

by Author Rev. Paul J. Bern

Mass shootings and the flurry of seemingly random violence, combined with rumors of wars between Russia, China and the US are making most of us think the entire world is going to explode into global conflict any moment. In my humble opinion, those who think so may well be correct. We are exactly at the point in history that Jesus spoke about in Matthew chapter 24, verse six when our Lord and Savior said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come”. Some say this means that ‘world war 3’ is inevitable just because Jesus so. After all, the word “must” is right in the middle of it.

But I would like to interject here that God also created humankind with a free will — meaning, we can change our world for the better if we do our due diligence in seeing this huge task through to its completion. It is also vitally important that we are all collectively determined enough to make our dreams come true. Where to start from, you may ask? One place could be to sharpen our instincts for empathy and compassion towards others. What has gone so terribly…