There is so much noise in our world today. It seems everyone has an opinion on everything, and if you happen to disagree with their opinion then you are one of the intolerant or unenlightened ones. Historically, opinions have never been in short supply. This much isn’t new. What is new are the multiple platforms people have available to voice their opinions.
Traditional and social media never sleep and are never quiet. Much – if not most – of what is being talked about has little value. It certainly has no eternal value. It is just noise, and distracting noise at that. There remain real issues in this world, real problems in need of a solution. Perhaps it is easier to focus on made up crisis than to confront what is really going on.
Once you’ve lived at least as long as I have (over half a century and counting), you come to see many of these made up “crisis” as cyclical. Financial market upheavals, political trends, economic swings, global cooling/warming – they ebb and flow and come back again and always seem to be direr than at any time in history. I no longer see use in debating such things. As my mentor, Jim Rohn once said when asked what he saw happening in the years to come, “I can tell you what the next ten years will be like. Just like the last ten years.” There is truth in that. Wars will be fought, the stock market will rise and fall, and one side of the political aisle will be in power while the other one despises that fact. The more things change the more they stay the same.
There is one thing that has been in the past and will still exist in the future, which means it must be given our attention today. People are living and dying without ever hearing about Jesus. With so many communication tools at our fingertips, this should not be. Never have we had so much capability to spread the good news of Jesus. Putting the politics aside, the refugee crisis happening all over the world is bringing a great number of people who have never had access to the Word of God into the proximity of people who have the opportunity to share it with them. No longer is the mission field someplace where we must go. The mission field is arriving in our cities every day. Don’t miss this opportunity!
With all the hatred and vitriol being spewed in the media, don’t be distracted or buy what they are selling. Keep your focus on Jesus and His mission. Care for the poor and homeless. Lend your voice to those who have none. Seek justice for those to whom it has been denied. Feed the hungry, give a drink of clean water to the thirsty, care for the sick, visit and pray for those in prison (Matthew 25:31-46). The message and mission of God are timeless. Don’t become distracted. The fields are still ripe for harvest and we must be about our Father’s work. The world will do what it’s always done. As people of the Truth, let us continue the redemptive work God has always been doing. Our mission is timeless. It does not change.