Perilous times are not just coming, they are here!

Good morning and welcome to Monday, November 9, 2009. I've often thought about how different it must have been when folks did not really know all that was going on because they had to wait until they saw a newspaper or heard it on a radio program. Today you and I know about it almost before it happens and we get to agonize our way through every excruciating detail, right and wrong, along with the professionals who are trying to make sense of it in real time. This past Saturday evening we were able to keep up with a dozen different major stories just by flipping channels. We could find out more about the shooter in last week's mass killings at Fort Hood, Texas. We could get the details of those who were killed and those whose heroic actions saved many. We watched the U.S. House vote through the health care legislation which is being touted as a major achievement of the Obama Administration. Sadly, the ten year projection only includes about five full years of the full cost since it is phased in over time. That's another detail I learned from those doing analysis on the bill. The big big question is whether or not we are better off for knowing all of these things on a second by second basis.

I find it fascinating that I've been informed of a major world event while speaking to a person on the telephone who just got an alert on their cell phone giving them the headline. Even for a person who likes to be informed, you have to wonder about the impact, especially over time, of the incessant scream of the 24 by 7 news cycle. We don't have to wonder because there are well documented cases where the coverage of a major issue so impacted the understanding of the facts that people actually began to take unwarranted actions as a result. It can spike the sale of protection equipment, medical treatments, and any number of other types of responses, based on the perception that is formed by the hearing public. Add to all of this the competition for viewers and you have one big balled up mess as each station or outlet tries to be first or to be more dramatic, all in the name of ratings. I'm not finished yet. Then you have a cottage industry that has grown up which basically thrives by analyzing the stations and their coverages to determine who is right or wrong. The problem then becomes the bias or the slant of those watching the watchers. We are a funny lot, don't you think?

Meanwhile, it is tough down in the trenches. My guess is that some 20 million or more folks here in the greatest country on the face of the earth are waking up to dim prospects for a paycheck this morning. They are also being drowned out with the slogans and promises from folks who live about as high as one can imagine while proclaiming that they really can feel their pain. Our local fellowship has started a new ministry where specific folks in need have been written down on a heart and placed on a bulletin board along with the need listed that someone might be able to help with. Let me just say there are many hearts on that board and it has just been started. That's the reality of the 24 hour cycle that people are living in. Their defined reality is one of caring for their families and trying to make sense out of a senseless world. While Washington will not lead us back to God which is the pattern of recovered blessings as given in God's Word, you and I can do what we can do. We can seek God early and often on behalf of the needs that surround us. We can also be His hands extended to those that we can help. The news may seem mostly bad but with God there is always true hope and change. Hope through a Savior. Change through Him living in people and directing their lives, from the inside out. Be encouraged and may God bless us as we seek to live out the life He has given to us! Amen. .....More later.