Breaking News

I have now lived in three very different areas: Holland, Orange City, and Chicago. As I was watching the news the other night I was once again reminded of how depressing our news is these days- it is no longer a surprise when I hear about more than one murder in a day. But there once was a time when an attempted robbery would have surprised me.

When I lived in Holland I didn’t pay much attention to the news, but from what I remember most of it focused on happenings around the state, a few local things about a robbery or gang violence or something, and world news during the local news time.

When I lived in Orange City during the year we first went to war against Iraq the majority of the news coverage was on two things- the war and local sports. Seriously they could talk about the football team, the basketball team, the cheerleaders, whatever for hours on end, but any real news beyond the way the weather was affecting crops was rare.

Now I am just outside Chicago and it almost doesn’t seem worth it to watch the news because it’s either about the corrupt politicians or the death of yet another person caused by uncontrolled violence.

The TV depressed me, but it also didn’t surprise me. I want to be surprised by violence, by corruption, by evil. Initially I thought I was desensitized to these things because of how abundant they seem to be now compared to before. But I realized something later on- I may be a bit desensitized by the violence, but I would rather be overwhelmed with all this wickedness thrown in my face than live in the bubble that suggests the only bad things happening are too far removed from my world to actually affect me. This is a more accurate picture of what we as Christians need to be seeking to change. The world we are called to be in but not of is not an idyllic town where sports and weather and wars in other countries are what make our news. We are called to be in a world that is totally corrupted by evil, a world that is currently ruled by prince of darkness. We need to be throwing light into the darkest of places. I think it’s too easy to forget what we are up against when we aren’t exposed to the reality of it in our backyard. It’s not pretty, it’s not safe, and it certainly will not be easy. Let’s get started already.