The Crazy Out There
The news will make you crazy. Truly, it seems as though our world gets more and more chaotic every week. In one very real sense, it is true. 1 John 2:17 says, “The world and its desires pass away,” and 2 Corinthians 4:18 reminds us the things we see with our physical eyes are temporary. Simply put, the earthly world is wasting away. So if you fixate on news of the day without properly contextualizing it against eternity, your spiritual and physical health will almost certainly deteriorate. This sobering reality lies at the foundation of why we gather as The Equipped each week.
We gather because the reality outlined above is not the one promised to us! Our promise is one of an abundant life (Jn. 10:10), and we gather to help each other grow in the grace of understanding what that means and how to walk fully in it!
Our family was visiting extended family this week and attended Church 2:14 on Sunday (if you are in the Peoria, IL area, check them out). During the sermon, we were reminded of the scholarly accounting that 39 of the 40 miracles documented in Acts occurred outside the walls of the early church.
My friends, that is why you and I together do this thing called The Equipped. It is because we have a common bond that offers life-changing power to the world, but it is a power that is offered into an intense level of crazy out there!
Our God is able to do immeasurably more than we can even ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). But in order to be a vessel of that power in a way that is equipped for the crazy out there, you and I must be constantly establishing our footing and preparing to stand on Truth and eternal beauty amid a chaotic world.
We are to fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2), and one of the most persistent threats to that objective in our current day and age is the constant deluge of information. You live in a “more is better” world, but more is not always better, especially when that more is a constant stream of news and information curated to keep you scrolling and clicking.
You need a plan for fixing your eyes on Jesus rather than the crazy out there. This is not a call to ignorance, as Jesus himself rebuked the religious leaders for failing to discern the signs of their day. But the crazy out there is not the object of your affection or attention. The object of your affection and attention must be Jesus, the lover of your soul.
As you endeavor to fix your eyes on Jesus amid all the crazy out there, I encourage you to consider the strategy of intermittent news fasting offered by Jason Woodruff from The Pour Over (by the way, The Pour Over is also worth checking out, but just as with The Equipped, do so with a “more is not always better” mindset).
Whether you deploy Jason’s strategy or another, the critical thing is to walk and live intentionally in a way that redeems rather than is captivated by the crazy out there. Do not be deceived—the “news” of this world threatens to make you crazy! But you have the Good News that overcomes the world living within you, and you are invited to posture yourself within the beauty of that Truth!
The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.