Posted by
Theophilus on Thursday, February 15, 2007 9:26:19 AM
I guess the situation is an old one: bad news sales. Everyday we are bombarded with bad news from all around the world. There are health crisises, there are killer weather systems, there is war, there is raping and stealing, there is murder, there is AIDS in Africa, there are random acts of violence, there is loss of life. All of these things grab us. I don't know exactly how, but I am sure that all of this is bound to have an affect on us as human beings. Stress is a killer, and there is lots of stress in our wolrd and on our TV and on the internet. I have had friends that did not own TVs, took no newspaper, and I am not sure of their time spent on the internet -- but they seemed a lot less stressed out. Oh, I know, we'll say "yeah, they are also uninformed idiots." Oh really. Uninformed about what? Life and how to live it with peace and joy?
The church that I attend is not large, but there are lots of large hearts there. There are men and women in my church that are engaged daily in random acts of kindness --- of course these things are never reported, and we seldom comment on them. In fact, some go so far as to completely follow the Biblical admonition and do not even let their left hand know what their right hand is doing, much less advertising their good deeds to others. But I am proud of them, I appreciate them, and love them and am inspired by their unselfishness.
I guess what I really want to say today is that we must never lose sight that we are to be overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21). Let this begin right where we are and who we are with; in our conversations, may they be encouraging not the opposite. May we think on those things that are noble and good and praiseworthy (see Philippians 4:8).
Lent is approaching, and though I am not a "liturgical" Christian, perhaps we (me) would consider a news fast. I wonder what it would do for us? Can you even imagine not watching the TV news channels, not reading the newspaper, not reading the news websites? Where would we go, what would we talk about, how could we live? Perhaps THAT is why we need to go on a news fast. For a Christian, isn't Christ enough?