look away from the train wreck

Watching the news lately feels like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion. I can’t do anything about it. And yet I can’t seem to look away.

In his sermon yesterday, pastor talked about the sensationalism and bloodlust that drew people to the Colosseum. The pull of watching violence, death, and evil from a safe distance, the strength of that pull, and how staring into the darkness tempts us, and distorts our view of the entire world. 

Staring into the darkness for long periods of time distorts our view of the entire world.

Well, of course it does.

But I need to be informed, I argue. And I stare at the train wreck on my newsfeed a little longer.

Do you need to be informed? Why? How much? When does the desire to be informed morph into something that harms you personally, that distracts you from the good work God has placed before you, that causes you to forget that you are in the hands of your Loving and Merciful Father?

These are the questions I carry today.

We do need to be informed. We need to be informed about our current, local world (a little,) but we also need to be informed about the bigger picture, the eternal picture, the work God has done and is doing through Christ in the world. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to just escape from all of this, to simply retreat, and be surrounded by the good, true, and beautiful, to remember God and to hide in Him from the crumbling world around us?

It would be nice. Healing, refreshing, restful. 

And why can’t we do just that, today? 

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. 

Psalm 34:8

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It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity