Tragedy Overload in the Digital Age: How Do We Handle All the Bad News?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | We have an email from Christina in Norman, Oklahoma today
00:00:09.200 | who asks, oh, this is a good question.
00:00:12.000 | In our overly digital and connected age,
00:00:14.880 | I often feel so overwhelmed with how much global
00:00:17.560 | and local suffering I feel both a desire
00:00:19.640 | and a Christian obligation to stay informed on,
00:00:22.000 | pray for, and be involved in.
00:00:24.220 | Sex trafficking, Syrian refugees,
00:00:26.760 | homeless people in my city,
00:00:28.040 | the Black Lives and the Blue Lives Matter movements,
00:00:31.520 | abortion activism, suffering members of my church,
00:00:34.740 | reaching the unreached, and on and on it goes.
00:00:38.940 | I wanna pray, but I find it so overwhelming
00:00:41.060 | because the prayer list is so long and I wanna act,
00:00:43.420 | but I'm paralyzed by how much there is to do.
00:00:46.160 | I truly believe this stems from a lack
00:00:47.780 | of deep heart conviction of God's sovereignty.
00:00:50.320 | Could you maybe share how you stay balanced
00:00:52.520 | and aware in praying and acting for the pain
00:00:54.900 | and suffering around the world?
00:00:56.060 | And specifically, how does your belief in God's sovereignty
00:00:58.060 | in the midst of all this suffering
00:00:59.440 | affect the way you live and pray?
00:01:01.700 | What would you say, Pastor John, to Christina?
00:01:04.000 | Well, I'm not sure I can say how balanced I stay
00:01:07.580 | because I don't, I so totally resonate
00:01:12.580 | with this sense of overload from the internet
00:01:19.560 | and from news venues about bad news.
00:01:25.080 | I mean, I am more impressed with it now than ever.
00:01:28.880 | I mean, I've always been impressed with how much sorrow
00:01:31.920 | and pain and bad news there is in the world,
00:01:33.440 | but recently, you go down the list of Google News
00:01:38.440 | on any topic and it's really bleak.
00:01:42.860 | So I get this, I really do, and I have no idea
00:01:47.500 | whether I have become the balanced person I need to be,
00:01:51.900 | but I can just point to how I fight the battle,
00:01:56.740 | and here they are, several steps.
00:01:58.560 | One, accept, I try to accept, and I would encourage Christina
00:02:03.560 | to try to accept the goodness of groaning.
00:02:09.280 | Ezekiel 9, verse four, "The Lord said to him," to Ezekiel,
00:02:15.300 | "Pass through the city, through Jerusalem,
00:02:20.560 | "and put a mark on the foreheads of the men
00:02:24.620 | "who sigh and groan over the abominations
00:02:29.000 | "that are committed in it," which means God
00:02:33.260 | is marking them for favor, and they are groaners.
00:02:38.260 | They're not chipper, "Oh, praise God, anyhow,"
00:02:42.220 | kind of observers of the abominations.
00:02:45.840 | They groan over American sinfulness in this culture,
00:02:50.840 | and so if she's one of them, I'm saying accept that role
00:02:55.840 | and expect to have it until you die.
00:03:00.200 | You will groan all the way home, and if you don't,
00:03:03.880 | you're not paying attention or you become callous.
00:03:07.800 | Second, realize that only God's shoulders
00:03:12.240 | can bear the boulders of global suffering.
00:03:15.760 | I don't know whether God expects us
00:03:20.560 | to look at every possible piece of news
00:03:24.520 | coming from around the world.
00:03:26.260 | I doubt it.
00:03:27.280 | I don't think it's possible even to see them,
00:03:29.760 | and if we could see them, I think only He is capable
00:03:33.480 | of managing so much bad news.
00:03:35.740 | Cast your burden, this is Psalm 55, 22,
00:03:41.880 | cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.
00:03:46.480 | He will never permit the righteous to be moved
00:03:49.920 | or to be paralyzed, and I think that burden
00:03:53.660 | is cast on the Lord because we cannot bear it.
00:03:56.520 | We cannot bear it, and then the last thing on this point
00:04:01.280 | is 1 Peter 5, 7, "Cast all your anxieties,"
00:04:06.200 | so not just your burdens, but all your anxieties,
00:04:08.760 | "on Him because He cares for you,"
00:04:11.680 | and then he adds, "Be sober-minded, be watchful.
00:04:14.080 | "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
00:04:16.840 | "seeking someone to devour."
00:04:18.480 | In other words, one of these anxieties
00:04:20.820 | that we cast on the Lord is massive supernatural evil.
00:04:25.820 | I mean, it's not just little items of news
00:04:28.520 | that are coming across the internet.
00:04:31.200 | It's a demonic force behind those things,
00:04:36.200 | which if we could see it, we would realize
00:04:40.400 | that we are a feather before that hurricane,
00:04:43.880 | and therefore, we must constantly cast those anxieties
00:04:48.480 | on the Lord because He has defeated Satan,
00:04:51.920 | and He can handle him quite nicely.
00:04:54.880 | Number three, give thanks for the diversity
00:04:59.880 | of the gifting of the body of Christ.
00:05:04.520 | If I thought that I had to do everything
00:05:07.720 | that God wants His church to do, I would despair.
00:05:10.560 | I would be paralyzed.
00:05:11.800 | Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers,
00:05:15.040 | do all work miracles, do all possess gifts of healing?
00:05:18.640 | I mean, that's an important one.
00:05:20.400 | Like, you may not be able to heal a person
00:05:23.800 | that you see needs healing, and somebody else
00:05:26.120 | might be able to meet exactly the need that they have,
00:05:29.480 | and therefore, you're not called
00:05:30.840 | to bear that particular burden,
00:05:33.060 | but to be thankful for the body of Christ.
00:05:36.960 | Number four, trust God for the grace to do the good
00:05:41.440 | He expects you to do, not others,
00:05:46.200 | and then do the good in your path like the good Samaritan.
00:05:50.240 | 2 Corinthians 9:8, "God is able to make all grace
00:05:56.100 | "abound to you, so that having all sufficiency
00:06:01.160 | "in all things at all times, you may abound
00:06:07.020 | ," now, how you interpret this next phrase
00:06:09.900 | is the difference between despair and joyful hope,
00:06:14.180 | "that you may abound in every good work."
00:06:18.660 | Does that mean God gives you the grace
00:06:23.660 | and the sufficiency at all times, in every way,
00:06:26.500 | in every place, to do the good work
00:06:28.620 | that a Christian in China is expected to do this afternoon?
00:06:32.500 | No, no, no, every good work there means
00:06:37.500 | everyone appointed for you,
00:06:41.660 | which is a wonderfully liberating thing.
00:06:44.900 | You will never be asked to do a good work
00:06:48.760 | for which this verse is not true.
00:06:52.220 | Every grace will be there for you to do it.
00:06:56.100 | God doesn't intend for you to look at 30 good works.
00:07:01.060 | No, you can only do five today and feel guilty about 25.
00:07:06.060 | He absolutely does not want that to be the case.
00:07:10.220 | That's why this verse is in the Bible.
00:07:12.740 | And so, yes, there will be grace for every good work.
00:07:17.740 | Number five, pray big, global prayers
00:07:22.740 | that Jesus taught us to pray,
00:07:24.920 | including for more workers in the harvest.
00:07:28.960 | Our Father who art in heaven,
00:07:31.220 | big prayer number one, hallowed be your name.
00:07:35.620 | Big prayer number two, your kingdom come.
00:07:39.180 | Big prayer number three,
00:07:41.220 | your will be done on earth as in heaven.
00:07:43.420 | It's good to pray big, global,
00:07:48.420 | general, sweeping prayers,
00:07:52.900 | and then pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
00:07:56.200 | to send out more laborers.
00:07:58.340 | I mean, we can see specific needs that need to be met.
00:08:01.700 | We can only do a fraction.
00:08:03.940 | And Jesus says, "Go ahead, ask me, ask me.
00:08:07.260 | "I have laborers.
00:08:08.500 | "I'll send them, ask me."
00:08:10.420 | Number six, regularly pray
00:08:14.060 | that God would show you what more you can do.
00:08:17.020 | Galatians 6:10, "So then, as we have opportunity,"
00:08:22.020 | as we have opportunity, kairos in Greek.
00:08:27.500 | I love that word, kairos,
00:08:29.380 | a special, particular moment in time
00:08:33.620 | that's designed for a good work.
00:08:35.620 | "As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,
00:08:40.040 | "especially to those who are the household of God."
00:08:43.420 | So we pray, Lord, create those opportunities for me,
00:08:48.020 | those kairoi, and help me see them and embrace them.
00:08:52.640 | That's how we don't settle into being content
00:08:57.300 | with yesterday's grace.
00:08:59.420 | Yesterday, you did a good deed, two good deeds,
00:09:02.320 | three good deeds.
00:09:03.260 | You gave this, you gave that, you did this.
00:09:05.380 | You treated this person kindly.
00:09:07.420 | That's yesterday.
00:09:08.820 | Today, Lord, what's the new opportunity
00:09:12.500 | for doing good to people,
00:09:14.900 | especially to the household of God?
00:09:16.600 | So we pray, show me, Lord, how to use my money
00:09:19.900 | and my time and my energy and my gifts.
00:09:22.540 | And lastly, I would say, rest in the sovereignty of God.
00:09:27.540 | I am God and there is no other.
00:09:29.940 | I am God and there's none like me,
00:09:32.460 | declaring the end from the beginning
00:09:34.380 | and from ancient times, things not yet done,
00:09:36.980 | saying, "My counsel shall stand
00:09:41.460 | "and I will accomplish all my purpose."
00:09:45.540 | - So good, thank you, Pastor John,
00:09:48.340 | and thank you for the wonderfully insightful question,
00:09:51.200 | Christina, and for more details about the podcast,
00:09:54.020 | to catch up on past episodes,
00:09:55.100 | or to subscribe to the audio feed,
00:09:56.740 | and even to get your own question to us,
00:09:59.060 | go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:03.740 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:10:05.780 | with longtime author and theologian and pastor,
00:10:08.900 | John Piper, I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:10:10.380 | We'll see you tomorrow.
00:10:11.480 | (upbeat music)
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