Terrorists, Tornadoes, and Men with Guns – It’s an Old Story

Sometimes I feel as though there’s a newsticker running over my head throughout the day.

Does that happen to you?

Doesn’t it seem nearly impossible to escape the headlines? Gunmen, tornadoes, terrorists, elections, we live in a world full of screens and all of them are screaming the latest bad news.

Is it possible that in the midst of a world that seems to hang on an AP wire, Jesus would call me to come out and play?

When Jesus started His ministry, the Israelites were living under Roman rule. They were a people who had been oppressed for a long time and they were tired and ready for change.

Some of them felt it was time for a political change. Some wanted to overthrow the government. Others believed that serious attention to religious duties was the answer. They were all certain that if the Messiah came just then, He would get right down to business.

But when He arrived, He went to weddings and dinner parties. He tarried with children and prostitutes. He worked with the poor, the outcasts, the sick, the Gentiles. He surrounded Himself, not with the wise rabbis and Pharisees, but with unschooled fishermen.

They were ready for war and He seemed determined to throw a party. No wonder they were confused.

I don’t really pretend to understand this about Him either.

There are things I need changed in my world. Answers. Solutions. Cures. Action. And I know He has the power and the knowledge to change it all.

But I know I heard His voice today whispering through the trees bearing the first buds of spring. His laughter came in bursts at flowering trees and splashes of forsythia and violets. He winked at me from patches of green scattered in the unadorned brown remnants of a long winter.

Come be with me. He seemed to say. Come away to where there are no screens, no headlines, no stresses of the day. Come be with me. There are secrets I know that will calm your heart and mind.

If we allow the headlines of life to rob us of the blessings of our relationship with Jesus, we allow them to suppress the truth of Jesus in our lives. Paul wrote:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20

Are you weary and heavy laden, loved one? Take a long walk in the woods. Sit under a tree. Buy a bouquet or single rose. Stand in a window. Run along the seashore. Let what He has created remind you that He is and let His presence silence all the screens and answer all the headlines.

It seems as crazy now as it did back then – to see the problems of the world and turn to run after a man who tells the most amazing stories.

It is a little crazy.

But what looks crazy in this kingdom is the sanity of the Kingdom He issued in when He arrived and we are citizens of that Kingdom if we follow Him.

So take a walk and inhale the air of freedom until He comes.