UFOs
sited in Missouri, man attaches dynamite to a dog and blows it up (for you dog
lovers, the dog survived and is being taken care of by a Good Samaritan who renamed him Rocket), a man bites off parts of another man's face, Greece's
economic woes may eventually impact banks in the U.S. and the 2012 elections,
an emergency U.N. meeting is called to deal with the crisis in Syria—these are
just some of the news items of the day.
If
I were an alien on a UFO visiting, I think I would hightail it and find another
planet on which to take a vacation where there was more peace and less war. On
a more serious note, how is it possible to listen to the news stories that
bombard us day in and day out and not become depressed or despondent?
Many
years ago at a Christian writer's conference, an editor asked me what I do for
a living.
“I
provide closed captioning for television,” I told him. His eyes lit up as
if there must be plenty of writing material in those juicy stories.
I
laughed at him and shook my head. What good stories could I write? Oftentimes
the news left me depressed. Perhaps the same sentiment was felt by Nathanael in
John 1:46 when he commented about Jesus’ birthplace, “Can anything good
come from Nazareth?”
But
my response to that editor has always bothered me.
Can I not find good in the
world if I look for it? Does God not bring good out of evil? Can He not redeem
the worst story I have ever reported?
Sometimes
at night when I'm falling asleep, I will think back to something I captioned
during the day and will be troubled. I won’t be able to get a disturbing image
out of my mind. Perhaps it's Satan's way of attacking me—after all, if He can
make me doubt God's love and providence, how effective can I be in my witness?
In
my limited wisdom, all I can feel or see is the pain and suffering inflicted. And
while I despise someone else’s gross behavior, as a sinner, I am just as guilty
of hurting others. Sometimes I wonder how God tolerates it all. How can He not
get angry? If I have righteous indignation in my limited understanding, how
much more so does God become angry?
In
I Corinthians 2:7, the Bible speaks of God having secret wisdom—a wisdom that
is hidden, that not even kings and presidents and premiers can understand.
Not
only that, but He says that He was “destined” to give that wisdom to us even before
time began.
The
Bible also claims that Jesus would not have been crucified if the rulers had
understood what it was they were doing. That means it was necessary that the
people not understand what happened to Him as even today we don't understand
many of the things that happen in the world.
When
I am closed captioning and wonder, how could God let that happen, I remind
myself that I am thinking this way because I don't have the wisdom of God. It's
not like God sits up in the heavens wringing His hands and wondering how
mankind screwed up His planet. Not only does He know, but whatever He has
planned for us far surpasses even the most horrendous event that can happen in
our lives.
It
takes a lot of faith for those roots to go deep into the human heart. I
Corinthians 2:9 says, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has
conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. That means
physically and mentally we can't know, but God has revealed it to us by His Holy
Spirit.
In
Matthew 24:12, when referring to the latter days and the signs of the end of
the age, Jesus stated, Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of
most will grow cold...
It's
very easy to read this and flippantly think, “Oh, I would never do that. I
will always love my neighbor, my family, my husband.”
No matter what
happens, can we believe that? Is our love greater than that murdered child or a broken heart or abused animal? Is God's love greater still? Even if I don't
understand it now, it is enough to know that someday I will.
As
Peter said in John 6:68, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. My faith must be strong enough to stand up to the worst of
humanity because Satan is relentless. His fate is sealed and he has nothing to
lose. Whenever I start to doubt, again, I remind myself it is God who holds the
words of truth.
One
thing we can do in response to the news is be an intercessor. God never tires
of hearing our prayers. Some of those suffering souls that get reported in news
stories may not know the Savior, but we know as Christians the one who holds
their future. We can be assured that God's love is deeper than their pain and
great enough to reach across states, oceans, and continents.
On
a grander scale, I fear not so much a battle with weapons of mass destruction
as I do the war imposed on Christian principalities and beliefs.
In light of
that, some upcoming topics may make you uncomfortable, but I hope you will read
my blog anyway. Please feel free to leave comments as I love to hear from readers.
