Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-8 (NKJV)
One of the
apps on my cell phone is a daily morning briefing of the five things I need to
know today, taken from the news headlines of the New York Times[2].
This morning
I was greeted with:
·
Several stories on fighting in the Ukraine and how the US is involved
·
A data breach at Anthem Health Insurance
·
The Trans Asia air crash that killed 31
·
Wall Street is soaring while Greek stocks are heading towards the
cesspool
·
College freshmen are more overwhelmed and depressed than ever
·
President Obama will speak at the National Prayer Breakfast today
Sometimes I
have to remind myself to breathe!
Sometimes (almost
every day) I want to remove the app from my phone.
But I also
know those issues won’t disappear if I try to pretend they’re not there. Now, that’s an appalling conundrum for
someone my age; I can hardly imagine the pressure on those who are growing up
in a culture that is such a cauldron of boiling possibilities, the results of
which only promise images of mayhem and destruction.
By contrast,
when I think of my childhood – 1950-ish dirt roads, Andy Griffith, General
Stores and baseball, the words that come to mind are: we’ve come a long way, baby!
To be sure
there was the Cold War and the possibility of the big bomb dropping from the
sky while you were at school. (I still don’t
understand how getting under your little wooden desk protected against nuclear blasts
that could obliterate continents.)
But the big
difference in the change between my “Mayberry-upbringing” and today’s culture
is there was little chance of my seeing on my iPhone™ an embedded newscaster with
a military unit attacking Osama bin Laden. Or watching live on my iPad or tablet some terrorist
torturing and beheading a journalist.
We live in a
tough world.
But it’s
always been that way. It’s just
different-tough now.
Note to self
– breathe; God has this too!
I don’t make
light of what people are going through.
As a pastor, I hear about the darkness and depression just about every
day.
The good
news is still good – God has not abandoned us; just the opposite is true.
In a time
such as this it is evident that we have little holding us up other than
God!
For You Today
If you have
to – breathe deeply. Then offer your
prayer to God, with thanksgiving.
He’s
promised peace for your heart – a peace that passes all understanding.
[1] Title image: By
Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Antoine Themistocleous (Official website of the
US Navy), via Wikimedia
Commons
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