Finding Compassion in an Angry World, by Rev. Russ Legear

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, 

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Rumi

It’s been a challenging year. We’re hurting. We’re getting sick. We’re worrying about whether we will get others sick. We may be wondering whether the color of our skin will be a factor the next time we’re pulled over by the police. We’re figuring out how to live our lives in what feels like a more disconnected world.

Anger is a natural reaction to all of these things. I want to call that out because, if 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that there is no value in us bottling up our emotions. What we’re feeling during these difficult times is absolutely valid.

Shelter in place this year has given me opportunities to take a good look at all the ways that I am feeling angry. I had to ask myself: why am I so angry? I immediately went to the things I see in the news, the complications with living a semi-quarantined life. But when I took a moment to go deeper, I found that my anger really has nothing to do with any of the stuff I see in the world. It may have been the trigger, but there was always something deeper.

In short, I was angry at God. God wasn’t creating the world that I knew was possible, a world that can work for everyone. I realized that by being angry at racists, by being angry at politicians, by being angry at a virus, I was really just venting my anger toward God. I was creating separation between myself and the Divine. After all, if God is truly all that there is, then any anger I direct at myself or others is directed right back toward God.

The salve for all of this anger isn’t judgement, though. It’s compassion. It’s the conscious opening of our hearts to the pain we are feeling, as well as the possibility of authentic connection with not just those we love, but with those with whom we disagree. Because every person--every person--is a physical manifestation of God’s Love. Even when they’re acting like a complete fool.

Compassion is the choice that no matter how far someone walks from the Divine, from Love, that we will always hold that door open through which they may walk back toward Love. This choice is not easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing we'll ever do.

But it is so, so necessary.

Rev. Russ Legear received his Masters in Consciousness Studies from the Holmes Institute in 2020, and is a Centers for Spiritual Living Minister, Practitioner, and lifetime student of consciousness and metaphysics. He currently serves as a staff minister at Cityside Spiritual Community in Chicago, IL. His ministry is centered around taking people deeper, helping them to find ways to move past the trappings of the human ego and all the funky stuff it creates in their lives. He is passionate about pastoral care and finding ways for people to connect in deeper relationship; not just with others, but with themselves, and with God.

Russ also works for Chicago Public Schools solving some rather large information technology problems. He uses New Thought principles there every day to break through barriers that prevent students and teachers from connecting through technology.