Several years ago someone asked my how I was doing and without a beat I replied, “oh you, just surfing the apocalypse,” without really thinking about it. Since then, this phrase that came to me seemingly from thin air, has become part of my lexicon for when people ask me how things are going in this age of Trump 2.0 and all the horror that goes along with that. I am riding wave after wave of the 24 hour news cycle as the ever-breaking news comes to us at breakneck speed. Every breech of public trust from this regime, every corrupt or criminal act, every international faux pas and war crime, every midnight tirade from the dementia addled fascist sexual predator at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, is yet another wave that rolls in.

We can either ride the wave or get rolled by it, metaphorically bouncing along the bottom of the ocean and getting worked by coral, rocks, and sand. It’s all way too much, even without considering the normal ebbs and flows of everyday life with all of the challenges that come from being a 21st century human being during late-stage capitalism. Kids still have practices and events, groceries and errands need to be run, our mental and physical health attended to if possible, and someone has to make dinner…No wonder so many people are feeling overwhelmed, unmotivated, and wanting to shut out all of the noise and the news.

The waves just keep coming, so I keep trying to surf them all without getting overwhelmed. It ain’t easy…

Recently a reader asked me how to maintain faith when it feels like everything is falling apart. That’s a question I am sure many people are struggling with right now with all of the aforementioned political chicanery and warmongering going on. Things are undoubtedly heavy and so much does seem to be going to hell in a hand-basket. It’s times like these when faith, whatever that may look like for people, can be of vital importance.

While being inundated with the all of the predictably bad news it can feel like literally everything is falling apart. When I start to feel that way, I have to remind myself of something my therapist has said to me many, many times, “feelings aren’t facts.” Yes, America is a shit-show right now and there is a lot going wrong, but not everything is literally falling apart. Sometimes just acknowledging those truths – that feelings aren’t facts and not everything is actually falling apart – can help our brains get unstuck a bit. At times like this, every tool we have can prove helpful. My therapist reminds me of these things often and then, sometimes much to my chagrin, she makes me list things that are going reasonably well, whether it’s at home, in my vocation, or in the world. This doesn’t make everything better, nor does it diminish the reality of what’s happening more broadly in the world. It does help to reframe things so that the impact of those relentless waves is somewhat lessened. It’s easier to surf these waves when you’re better prepared and don’t feel like everything is hopeless.

Faith practices can fall by the wayside when people feel overwhelmed. I know that has been the case for me all too often. The pandemic and the year my sister was sick were low ebbs for my spiritual life. It can take so much energy just to do the quotidian things of normal life that when it comes time to engage in spiritual practices the will to do so just is not there. The spirit is willing but the flesh feels overwhelmed by the global shit-show so it can become easier to simply turn on Netflix or Hulu as a distraction. There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that from time to time, and in some ways that is definitely self-care. At the same time, it’s probably not enough to help us keep the faith so to speak.

Spiritual community with like-minded people of faith is vitally important for staying spiritually grounded. That doesn’t necessarily need to be a church congregation, though it certainly can be. Communal worship and participating in faith based rituals can give us strength to keep going while also helping us feel closer to God. For those people for whom going to church is a nonstarter for whatever reason, simply meeting people at a local coffee shop, park, or a meal to talk about faith, spirituality, or spiritual practices can do the same thing as attending a church service. The key, I believe is being in spiritual community along with faith based rituals and spiritual practices that uplift, enliven, or help us slow down. Which reminds me, I need to make more time for this myself.

When I was in my first year of seminary, I learned about different types of prayer practices that were different from the type of intercessory prayer I’d learned back in my fundamentalist days. One of these practices was lectio divina. In this type of prayer, one chooses a passage of the Bible to read and then to reflect on prayerfully as a means to opening one’s self up to God. It’s a devotional form of reading the Bible rather than a deep dive into context, history, and exegesis. You can pick a verse or passage at random or follow the lectionary reading schedule. It’s up to you and there’s no one right way to choose. Engaging the Bible in this way can be quite rewarding as a spiritual practice.

Another type of prayer is contemplative prayer. It’s a type of meditation where one sits quietly with one’s eyes closed. When random thoughts intrude, one silently repeats a single word that they’ve chosen to interrupt the flow of thoughts. My word is always ‘grace’ when I engage in contemplative prayer. When I first started this practice, I got the contemplative prayer app which has a chime to begin and end each session. I began my practice by sitting for three minutes and gradually increased the time everyday until I could easily sit for thirty minutes. I had to silently say ‘grace’ a lot at first, but eventually that diminished as I got more used to sitting in silence.

I’ve also found mindfulness meditation helpful. Reading some of Zen monk Thich Naht Hanh’s books helped me with this. I highly recommend Living Buddha, Living Christ and Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers – especially for Christians or those who have deconstructed from Christianity. His Buddhist lens enabled me to see past the fundamentalism of my youth and young adulthood to see meditation and even Jesus differently. This was instrumental for me in shedding some of the embedded theology of my past while also cultivating mindfulness and some peace of mind.

Recently on the God Squad Pod, we interviewed a couple of authors, Dr. Kevin Young, and pastor Jeremy Steele. They’ve both written books about connecting with God (or no god at all) through spiritual practices and rituals. Dr. Young wrote about his experience of spending time in a monastery on retreat when his faith was in shambles and God was seemingly elusive. Steele’s book explores a variety of ritual practices that touch something innately human within us when enacted. He chose to remove God from the rituals in the book, but made it clear that readers can add God into them easily if that is important and meaningful to them. I have both books and am exploring how they can help me keep the faith and feel spiritually connected as I surf the apocalypse.

I beleive at times like these that the important things are to: practice gratitude for all of the things that aren’t falling apart no matter how small; find spiritual community in whatever way is meaningful to you; engage in spiritual practices that you find uplifting whether it is communal worship, reading scripture and other spiritual works, prayer or meditation of some sort, and engaging in rituals that help you feel connected to God/Spirit. All of these practices can give us strength to ride these waves, continue to hope for a brighter future. We can also find the energy to be engaged in the work of dismantling oppressive systems, taking down this regime, and building something far better as a result of engaging these practices. Many hands make light work and staying spiritually connected can make it even lighter.