Whose Report

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Kay and I are back from some travels that took us to the Carolinas. As you might imagine, I put together a portable library, and yes, it outweighed any other single container we packed. In the Periodicals section were several newspapers I hadn’t read at home. (The carrier and I have a tacit arrangement: he brings the paper late; I read it even later; it seems to be the best we can do.) Those papers had a particular job. For years I’ve hoped to find a newsfeed without a heavy bias toward one extreme or another. No luck so far. I’ve asked some of the newsiest people I know, and they’ve made some earnest suggestions, but every source I’ve checked has been – sure enough – large on commentary and small on reporting. Maybe it’s the cynical streak in me, but I can smell an editorial slant from a mile off. Those five or six editions of the Journal-News I had packed were part of an experiment, the hypothesis of which could be stated like so: The Lord has a better purpose for news reporting than I’ve imagined up to this point.

     Though I’ve been away I haven’t stopped thinking about the Three R’s series, and our mission as little-r redeemers, cooperating with the capital-R Redeemer who redeemed us, to reconcile creation and humanity to himself. As Christians – being conformed to the image of (God’s) Son (Romans 8:29) – our heartiest efforts will be at the points where culture and faith intersect. Since news pervades the lives of Christian and non-Christian alike, it would qualify as one of those points. Running news through the grid of the Three R’s – Receive as all good, Reject as all bad, or Redeem something inherently good from whatever not-good purposes it may have been put to – what do we find?

     In the Information Age, differing viewpoints can be had by the millions in a split second. It’s not wise, or even possible, to Receive them all as good and true. And if you picked one, or a small handful, someone would be along (in a split second) to say you’re an idiot for doing so. Now the challenge is to figure out whether you’re an idiot, and viewpoints on that topic can also be had by the millions. Let’s give Receive a tender pat on the head and set it aside as not an option.

     How about Reject? Well, I tried it. For several straight months, I went news-less. During March, April, and the first half of May 2020, I had checked the news several times a day. After about six weeks I could have written the copy for the reporters – from the previous day’s copy and the day before that. So I checked out; surely there would be something better to do with the same amount of time. Right away I started missing news items I needed to know about. It got to where I could hardly contribute to a relevant conversation. In the current reality, where connectedness is a very real expectation, I doubt any of us could afford to Reject news altogether.

     Maybe the Lord could use that stack of newspapers to point me toward Redeeming the reporting efforts that had gone into them. I started with a prayer: “Father, please show me a better purpose for the news than I’ve seen so far.”

     Right away I read about the Christian missionaries who had been taken hostage in Haiti. My first thought was, “Obviously, this is a job for Special Ops.” But that thought was unproductive. Why? Because I’m not the one who decides whether Special Ops will do this job. Well then, is there a prayer to be prayed? Yes: “Father, let today be the day you deliver the hostages in Haiti.” Bingo. I thought I’d been reading a report on an international incident with potentially dire consequences, and it was indeed that. But at the core, I was looking at a prayer-starter.

     Were there any more prayers to offer up? Definitely. Gathering more reports, I learned that all over Haiti people were being snatched up, many of them children, by any gang members who thought they could collect any amount of ransom at all. “O, Lord, deliver the people of Haiti from gang violence, especially this scourge of kidnapping.” And how about the gang members? “Jesus, redeem the gang members – deliver them from their past and establish a future with God as their Father.” Turns out there have been dozens of different but related prayers to pray into this situation. And yes, I’ve prayed for the people who do have to decide whether Special Ops will be involved.

     In our Bible reading plan, yesterday was a day to read a whole Bible book: Obadiah (good thing it’s only one chapter!). From the middle of the first verse, catch this singular phrase:

 We have heard a report from the LORD…

     Yes, indeed we have – and we keep on hearing reports from the Lord, in Scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Question is, will we recognize them as such? Sure, many news reports won’t concern us, and there’s no need burdening our consciousness with those. But I would suggest that the great majority of items we come in contact with are prayer-starters.

     Looking closely, we can identify at least three things that “praying into the news” can accomplish. First and best, it can move the heart of God to rectify unjust situations. Next, by praying Spirit-led prayers we can sort truth from untruth, since, according to Jesus’ promise in John 16:13, the Holy Spirit is guiding believers into all the truth. And as it relates to our own hearts, praying into the news can relieve the frustration that mere fussing would only have aggravated. Looks like redemption to me.

     You won’t be able to escape the news for very long. I tried, and it didn’t turn out well. Better to engage the mind of Christ, Christian – let it have the lead – and ask: “Whose report will I believe?”

 

 Grace and Peace (and a prayer-nose for news),

 

John

 P.S. For updates on the hostage missionaries in Haiti, see https://christianaidministries.org/updates/haiti-staff-abduction/