As the U.S. government spirals into self-imposed chaos, we might ask, how does one find optimism when the political process is in crisis? Let’s take a view where God is not an immutable overlord, but a relational participant in a still-unfolding universe. Just one chapter in an ongoing narrative. This lens offers a critique of the week’s chaos with a dose of optimism.
If you’ve read my story, it will come as no surprise that I suggest God is fundamentally relational, acting through persuasion and creativity, not coercion. As such, our leaders’ performance can be judged as a failure to participate in God’s relational imperative. Instead of being drawn toward a legislation that serves the common good, they have prioritized an idolatrous search for absolute power, partisan victory, and self-serving repetition. The gridlock demonstrates a failure to prioritize freedom since they seem trapped by fear and ideology. The consequences lead predictably to repeating past mistakes rather than realizing new values God seeks to offer.
If one accepts a view of God who genuinely experiences and is affected by the world’s suffering, then the pain of the government shutdown is not happening outside of God’s experience. Every furloughed worker’s anxiety, every scientist’s disrupted research, and every citizen’s loss of assistance is felt and taken into the divine life. The government’s chaos is a tragedy not just for the nation, but for God. The immense value and potential wasted is experienced as a genuine loss in divine life. God eternally seeks a creative advance, but the shutdown is a retreat, a sin against that advance. The nation’s potential moves into static conflict.
So, then, the responsibility for progress rests with us. Optimism is an act of co-creation. God has not determined the outcome of this shutdown and the future is open. Seeing the crisis as an open door for influence, we recognize that every conversation and every choice is a moment where we become a co-creator with God in shaping the next moment of reality.
It seems like a monumental task but we heal the macro-level breakdown by practicing at the micro-level. This starts by seeking maximum harmony and value in our sphere of influence by practicing true relationality. We seek to genuinely take the perspectives of others, especially those who suffer from the chaos. This relational empathy facilitates the divine to unfold.
The reason we are outraged by the shutdown is that we intuitively know a better government that is coherent, just, and productive. This longing for harmony is the voice of the divine. To live optimistically is to join God in the divine adventure. It’s tough to stay optimistic, but being creative and relational in a world whose ultimate future is yet to be determined gives us hope.