I Think We Are Suffering From....

Yesterday's internal wrestling on my part about how to respond to a request by a local TV news reporter for an interview related to my thoughts on the "glee" that filled the streets of our country on word of Osama's death and my posting of the Passage from Proverbs 24:17 on Facebook (which she said gave her the idea for the peice) has stirred some thoughts I want to share.

First, I saw some folks using texts from the bible to back perspectives and that is always a dangerous thing when we take a verse out of context and hang it out there by itself.  Except, for the most part, if that verse comes from Proverbs.  Most of Proverbs is one liners that are meant to be spoken and heard as such.  They carry alot of weight by themselves and it is okay to hang them out there alone.  Perhaps Solomon was the first one to make great use of sound bites.

Second, is the whole use of sound bites in our society.  I fear that we have become so addicted to sound bites that we are suffering from thinking deeply!   

That is the very reason that I was not willing to give an interview (even though in the end she decided to go with another interviewee and never came back to me for one, except to tell me what she had done.  I didn't want to give an interview because in our sound bite world, this is a deeper subject that requires more than sound bites.  (However, I must say that Solomon's sound bite packs a powerful punch!)

Third, I wasn't willing to allow someone else to choose the sound bites!  Again it is too deep an issue to allow that!

For me at it's deepest is the question of what is the right response to all of this from one who desires to follow Jesus seriously not just as a label.  After all, Jesus calls us to Love God and Love Others, including our enemies.  He also calls us to be peacemakers.  As a follower of Jesus how do I respond to much that goes on in our world?  That is the deep question I constantly find myself asking.  And it is the deep question I long for other followers of Jesus to ask as well!  But not just ask, for that is not enough.  We must act on what the Spirit of God tells us the answer is!