Real quick:if you haven’t bought my book,today is the day. It’s storytelling and weird performance art and evangelical politics and goofy earnestness and I even write about my daughter’s birth in an inflatable tub in my living room surrounded by home birthing midwives. I’m telling you, it’ll blow your socks off. (So say the reviewers! 😭)
And if you have bought the book, THANK YOU! Can you take one minute togo review it?
Actually, my nervous system is confused. Am I safe or in mortal danger? Am I at peace or war? Am I responsible for the actions of Washington, D.C., or not? And if I am, then how?! And what the -*&? am I supposed to do about it?!
Is resistance protest, as in marching, giving money, and volunteering all day, every day, until we pass out from exhaustion? Or is resistance rest? Are we grieving or hoping right now? Are we staying informed or hating media of all varieties?
Are there different rules for me than for you, or is there one clear standard to live by? Is what I’m doing good enough? How am I failing, and how would I even know if I’m failing? Can I recognize failure? Is it failure when someone else calls it failure, or when the chasm of guilt that never leaves me begins to impede my daily life? Am I doing enough? And how could/should I do more?
We live within anxious times. So much is out of our control.
We must be this, and not that. We must do this, we must not do that. We must be hopeful, but also grieving. Staying informed, but also off of social media cause of their evil founders. Protesting, but also resting, which is also resistance.
But also, but also, but also. The “but also"s are adding up.
Meanwhile, the purity of conduct, of intention, of being that we so ardently seek remains out of reach. As much as we’d like to be better, above, and beyond those we dislike, we are not. We cannot bend our own willpower, let alone anyone else’s. (This is where the “help”prayer becomes useful, thanks Annie.)
What can we do? How can we “be” better? And how can we resist the bad of those who are doing truly unjust things in the world?
Please hear me when I say: I do not mean to diminish any of the extreme and terrible policy and rhetoric coming out of the White House. It’s just that I know many of us are finding this season impossible. I cannot metabolize every bit of bad news that demands my attention. I cannot even make sense of each piece of news that arrives in my feed. And in the most meaningful ways, I am powerless to fix any of these issues on my own. I am also, too often, powerless over my own mind and self.
However, even though I feel powerless, there is a way to begin the good work I need to do.
When I feel profound overwhelm, as I do right now, my one task is to slow myself down. Because when I am overwhelmed—when overwhelm is the point and the way to distract me from evil and injustice being done in my country (see the next section)—then I cannot act mindfully. I cannot do good when I cannot think. I cannot release my own poor motivations to God, and I certainly cannot do the next right thing when I cannot hear God directing me. I must get quiet enough to hear and act, and that requires addressing the overwhelm head-on.
But first, let’s understand the emotion of our times better, shall we?
I was struck by this recent thread by sociologist Jennifer Walter. She writes:
As a sociologist, I need to tell you: Your overwhelm is the goal.
The flood of 200+ executive orders in Trump's first days exemplifies Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine" - using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual - it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.
Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.
Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse. Traditional media can't keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage.The result? Weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.
Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.
Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.
Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.
Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context.
Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.
Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.
Focus Vs. Fear
In other words: Overwhelm and fear are not so different. The current American administration hopes to makes us (and I use us widely, including you citizens of neighboring nations) afraid, to distract us, to scatter us. With so much change and so many policies announced so quickly, how could any one of us keep up? How could any of us organize effectively when there is this much to protest?
This is why I want to encourage you to connect with your own mind and heart. I feel like I’m always beating this drum, over and over, to encourage each one of you to live with agency. Live your one particular God-breathed life.
Ask yourself:
What has God given you to do, you in particular?
What is one way in which you can partner with those in your community to march, protest, or rally for what you believe in?
What is your next right move?
My “Pet Causes”
For me, as I have taken stock, a few issues have risen to the surface for me: as far as my own political concerns, gun violence remains at the very top. I will march (as I have in the past) so that children will be safer in this nation.
Other important issues to me: how we talk about our neighbors. How we speak and label each other—what stories we tell about each other—can shift the way we make policy. It shifts who feel safe and can claim belonging in this American nation. So, I have committed to correct and speak up when I hear another person dehumanizing my neighbor. I will stand beside the humans in my country and beyond it, whatever race, gender, sexuality, ability, citizenship, or creed, and I will assert their innate worthiness as a human being created in God’s image.
Also essential: I will not abide the defaming of the Christian faith, especially of Jesus. So, using the Bible to defend abuse of any human? No, never. And I will not shut up about it.
While I have marched in the past, and I continue to donate to causes, my activism generally looks like writing and speaking these beliefs wherever and to whomever will listen.
I have other friends for whom immigration, war, wealth, capital punishment, or education are primary. Some of them travel to protest, and others lead organizations. I thank God for them, and I trust them and their activism. I will support them as much as I can. I will donate to the ACLU and the NAACP, I will donate to individuals in need, and I will pray. But I have realized that I cannot reasonably follow every headline. I cannot know or activate for every issue. And I will not allow the headlines to dictate my behavior or moods.
I mean that I will not let fear cause me to lose focus. My focus will remain fixed on the unique path I am walking, the one only I can walk, and I will be resolute. I will walk to the end.
You might be wondering, why does it matter if I/you/we recalibrate our nervous systems? Isn’t that pure privilege?1 If the world is burning, there’s no time for thinking! Only acting! Or at least, so it feels when we live in the constant state of confused overwhelm that the news cycle requires of us.
But I want to gently point out that even the son of God—an often unhoused person of color and one-time refuge in an occupied state—took time away to pray.
So the headlines roll by, I will skim, I will share, and I will pray. But I will not be sidetracked. My actions will be local, deliberate, steady, predictable, focused, and most importantly, led by the Holy Spirit. I will not be moved by the unpredictable, unstable actions of unpredictable, unstable men and women, especially those at the federal level of our government.
I will attend to trends and zeitgeist and the strong and true convictions of others doing their own unique good work, but I will not lose my own voice, the humble and true voice of God as it speaks from the core of my being.2 That core will be the guiding line for me, and to attend, I must address my overwhelm and confusion.
When I feel that overwhelm, I will return to my body, to the core being that guides my life. I will settle my body in place in the present. I will shut my eyes and breathe deeply. I will repeat the Jesus prayer in my mind, matching my breath: Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I will rub lotion onto my hands. I will walk and beat the ground with my feet, the vibration of my own steps traveling up my spine. I will take slow, hot showers. I will hold my husband in my arms, and I will let my children lean their heads onto my shoulder. I will watch my chickens sun themselves, bathing in dirt and so happy with their lot that I will hear them purring. (YES, THEY DO THAT!) I will hold a book in my hands. I will chop an onion for dinner.
In all of these ways I will return to myself, to the unrelenting beauty of being alive, and I will say thank you, and I will ask for help to know my next right move. And I believe that God will answer.
Thanks for reading, my friends.
Warmly, Liz Charlotte Grant
Tell me: how are you overcoming your own overwhelm? How are you engaging the news today, this week, this month? Any tips on finding your one “cause” to track in this moment? And do you see my take as privileged or resonant? (You’re allowed to disagree with me!)
I admit that I am a person who has benefited from my privilege. And also, might I point you toward Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance? (Order on Bookshop here) I have learned much from my non-white, non-majority culture sisters and brothers as they have asserted that capitalism runs on underlying streams of white supremacy. And so rest, mindfulness, and intentionality is an important counter narrative for our activism.
In case this language is confusing for you, I’d point you toward two absolutely essential Christian formation reads: Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved and Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak. Both have changed my life several times over.
Liz, I cannot tell you how much I needed these words and how grateful I am that you wrote about this now.
Your mention of “shock doctrine” made me think of something similar
In 2016 during the first round of the current administration, one of the minions, Steve Bannon coined a phrase “muzzle velocity” about the sheer volume of applesauce(code word for BS) that they threw at people in order to get them to be silenced by the rate in which their horrific policies were flying at us. This same strategy is happening now even though Bannon is on the outside looking in.
I am with you. I will continue to stand up for those who are being harmed and marginalized and the weapon of Christian nationalism must be prophetically called out like Amos and the other prophets called out Israel’s losing the plot of acting justly and mercifully. Thank you for your leadership in this arena and be encouraged my friend. This is the way!
I think so much of this anxiety is actually a hold over of the anxiety many of us grew up with in 90s American evangelicalism. We were told we had to “take the country back for Jesus” and “fight the culture wars” and “change the world” if we were serious about our faith. We’ve left behind the politics, but not the tone of panic and urgency. I want to serve the people I actually have the capacity to serve in real life and leave social media to enjoy the heat of its own combustion.
Liz, I cannot tell you how much I needed these words and how grateful I am that you wrote about this now.
Your mention of “shock doctrine” made me think of something similar
In 2016 during the first round of the current administration, one of the minions, Steve Bannon coined a phrase “muzzle velocity” about the sheer volume of applesauce(code word for BS) that they threw at people in order to get them to be silenced by the rate in which their horrific policies were flying at us. This same strategy is happening now even though Bannon is on the outside looking in.
I am with you. I will continue to stand up for those who are being harmed and marginalized and the weapon of Christian nationalism must be prophetically called out like Amos and the other prophets called out Israel’s losing the plot of acting justly and mercifully. Thank you for your leadership in this arena and be encouraged my friend. This is the way!
I think so much of this anxiety is actually a hold over of the anxiety many of us grew up with in 90s American evangelicalism. We were told we had to “take the country back for Jesus” and “fight the culture wars” and “change the world” if we were serious about our faith. We’ve left behind the politics, but not the tone of panic and urgency. I want to serve the people I actually have the capacity to serve in real life and leave social media to enjoy the heat of its own combustion.