Soul Stirrings

They say confession is good for the soul…I must confess my soul is greatly troubled these days.

Maybe I need to watch less television, or at least less news. Maybe I should drive around in silence instead of listening to my beloved NPR. Maybe I need to boycott social media, or at the very least limit the newsfeeds I read. All these solutions may bring some solace to my troubled soul, but they are all just equivalent to burying my head in the sand…and I’m just not very big on that option.

We live in a complex, complicated world. We have available to us more information about the world around us than at any other point in time in history. This is both a blessing and a burden. The mood of society today is reminiscent of the days following September 11, 2001. We live with an acute awareness that evil can strike anywhere at any time and we are powerless over the outcome. Powerlessness is a scary place to be, so we seek ways to control that which is ultimately uncontrollable.

A few weeks ago we watched with broken hearts as news crews reported from the beaches in Turkey where the bodies of children washed up on the shore because a boat carrying refugees had capsized. Within a matter of days the world of social media exploded over a change in the red cup Starbucks would use to serve its customers during the Christmas holiday season. Outrage was rampant because Starbucks opted to not use the snowflake emblem on its cup. Some were offended that this was yet another attack on Christianity and Christmas. Shouldn’t we be outraged over the child washing up on the beach instead of the cup?

We are powerless over so much that happens in this world. The only thing we have control over is how we respond. When evil strikes because of deep-seated hatred our response should stem from our deep-seated faith. If we ever feel moved to preface a sentence with, “I know it’s not very Christian of me to say this…” then we might want to refrain from what we are about to say. Let us not compromise our faith in God or our commitment to being followers of Christ because of someone else’s extremism or evil mindset.

May Christ, in all His tender mercies, bring us peace.

Shalom,
Tracy