A Much Needed (News) Break

It is so crazy to me that 10 years ago I was studying to become a journalist. I remember soaking my mind in news while at my newspaper job just a few years later. I knew ever aspect of crime in Lafayette, had edited more than enough Obama/McCain election stories to last a lifetime and knew every detail of all the missing women cases that happened in the nation one summer.

The stories that get our time and attention (for the most part) show all the hurts and negativity in our world. It can be mentally exhausting to only fill your head with stories like that and never be encouraged by the good in the world.

I feel like sometimes we hide behind the idea that we need to be informed to be good citizens. Whether it’s to be aware of dangers or because we can’t make a difference in politics or this world without knowing everything going on.

I think these are noble ideas, but how many of us, instead of feeling inspired to change the world, are simply discourage by what we hear? How many of us stop at hearing and never actually allow those stories to change the way we behave? How much different would my life look, if the time I normally dedicated to keeping up with the news was spent seeking God’s truth?

If you read the news and truly use it to change the world, keep at it. This post probably isn’t for you. The fact that I can read one story that tells me vaccines will destroy my child and another article a day later that says if I don’t get my child vaccined, it will destroy them, it’s hard to feel that “being informed” is always the way to go.  Or for me, reading about an extremely rare way that one in one billion children could die from, does more harm to my mind by making me worry than I think the good that comes from knowing it.

If you are up for it, join me in my #mediafreechallenge for the month of October. Here’s the challenge:

– Go one month without checking sites like CNN, FOX News, even People Magazine, whatever your daily source of news is.

– Hide posts from friends on Facebook who post links to news stories. I find my news feed is more full of links to horrible stories than personal updates. For me personally, it’s been overwhelming and a bit of a battle in my mind to not cause worry when I read things. If you don’t want to hide posts, simply spend less time on Facebook.

That’s not the end of it though! If it is, it probably won’t matter. 

– Replace this time with prayer for our nation and world and soaking in God’s truth. Instead of reading every story about Syria, spend that time praying for Syria.

– Ask the Lord to show you how you can be used to change this world. And simply choose to obey what He says.

This is an experiment only. I know we can’t be sheltered from the realities of this world to live in our own little bubble forever. But I do hope it will challenge you and me to not let it control us but instead, use it to make a difference!

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