Yesterday morning, I was in a coffee shop and overheard a talk show. One of those morning shows where gender-diverse, good looking hosts sit around, laugh, and talk about local news and, on an as-needed basis, world events too.
At one point one of the carefully chosen hosts said, "This is a big problem for the whole world!"
I am not sure whether she was speaking about Iraq, Korea, or Brad and Angelina. I'm not sure it mattered. Something in her voice, and that of her co-hosts, told me they probably hadn't researched this story too deeply, or even researched it themselves, or even researched it at all. Planet Earth might live to see another day. I'll have a bagel and iced coffee to go, please.
But this got me thinking: we hear warnings and dire predictions almost daily. War and terrorism. Global warming, gay marriage, gas prices. Some of these warnings worry us, some don't. Some come from authorities we trust, some don't.
Who is it that we trust to warn us? And what kind of warnings truly concern us?
Jesus warned us about a number of things. For example, he warned us to beware of hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). He said, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed" (Luke 12:15). One day, when he was given the day's alarming news (about some innocent suffering in Galilee), he even said, "Unless you repent, you will likewise perish!" (Luke 13:5)
Jesus' warnings were on the mark. Planet Earth really has suffered a millenia-long plague of hypocrisy, greed, and hard heartedness.
If you're like me, you tend to worry about the wrong things. Let's trust Jesus' analysis and worry about the things we really can change... or rather, that he can change if we let him.
"And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end." (Jesus in Matthew 24:6)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment