In recent years, I’ve had a hard time reading or listening to the news. I used to listen to it often on my drive to church and sometimes on my drive home. What I noticed is that I would inevitably arrive with a heightened sense of anxiety. 

Do you ever feel that after you turn off the news? 

I have become more and more aware that our media sources – whether they are left, right, or claim to be center – have a huge financial incentive to raise our anxiety… to make us angry or upset. And they have a huge financial incentive to feed us exactly what we want to hear based on our political leanings. They know that anxiety, that fear, even that confirmation keeps us coming back. Clicks. Readers. Listeners… Money.

And so I shut it off. And I stopped reading the paper. I said: I’m done! And, sure enough, my anxiety came way down.

The only thing is… very recently, a friend challenged me on this. He said: As Christians, we are not called to totally withdraw from this world. We’re called to be a light, a beacon of hope in the midst of it. He continued: We can monitor what we are taking in. (I mean, do we really need to listen to or read op-ed and opinion pieces?) And we can monitor how much we are taking in. (I was taking in way too much before). 

My friend’s suggestion was once a week (things don’t change much week to week), once a week, to pray through the headlines – remembering to lift up the most vulnerable and the most powerful. And then to ask God if there is some small action I can take that would help heal, mend or bring peace. God, grant me the courage, the energy, whatever I need to do that one small thing. And then to pray for God’s will to be done in all things.

Just a suggestion, he said. But not a bad suggestion. 

Let us pray: God of hope, so much of what is going on in the world around us feels out of our control, and mostly it is. But show us the small steps we can take. And then, Lord, help us to let go. We give you our eyes, our ears, our hands, our feet. Heal us and center us, that we might be instruments of your peace. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

There is a story about a woman at the airport who was waiting to catch her flight. She bought herself a bag of cookies, settled in a chair in the airport lounge, and began to read her book. Suddenly she noticed the man beside her helping himself to her cookies. Not wanting to make a scene, she read on, ate cookies, and watched the clock. As the daring “cookie thief” kept on eating the cookies she got more irritated and said to herself, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d slap his hand!” 

She wanted to move the cookies to her other side but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. Then with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, and he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, “This guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude. He didn’t show even an ounce of gratitude!” She sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look at the ungrateful “thief.” She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, reached in her bag to grab her book, and sure enough, next to her book was her own bag of cookies.

Turns out, the cookies they ate in the lounge were his, not hers. She had been the thief, not him.

This story reminds me that in life, things are not always what they seem. The truth is, when we become smug or self-righteous, often we are not seeing the whole picture. We lose sight of our own selfishness, our own lack of love and compassion. And even worse, we may miss the good and redeeming qualities of another person.

Jesus once said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

Please pray with me: Loving God, this is the day which you have made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. As we continue to walk this journey of life, help us to be slow to judge. Grant us eyes to see the bigger picture. And may we ever notice the beauty and good in others. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I was struck by an excerpt written by a soldier who had been wounded in the American Civil War. He was writing about seeing President Lincoln who had made a visit to the hospital where he lay in recovery. This soldier wrote, “I had a good home, and I had learned in church that God is compassionate. But I don’t think I understood compassion till the day that I saw suffering in Lincoln’s face. The boy in the next bed was dying, and the president sat there for two hours with this lad, clutching his hand. The Secretary of War and a couple of generals were trying to move the president along — I think for a cabinet meeting. But Lincoln wouldn’t move. He sat there in the stench and in the noise and he talked with that boy about home… The president talked with him till he died. And I saw the tiredness in (the president’s) face and the sadness of his eyes and then I knew things about God that I’d never known before.”

When we see acts of compassion and sacrifice and love, it resonates deeply within us. When we glimpse this type of beauty, we really do get a glimpse of what God is like. 

Let us pray: Loving God, you know our pain. You hear us when we cry out, and you suffer with us in our hurt. Thank you for your nearness to us. Thank you for the love and sacrifice and compassion that we see in others – a reminder of what it means to be created in your image. Help us to walk in your ways and follow your truth. 

Today we especially lift up those who need you near. We pray for families suffering separation, loved ones who are ill, military families who are worried or scared, and veterans who need an extra measure of love and care. God of grace, we offer our prayers for the needs of others and commit ourselves to serve them even as we have been served in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today, I am deeply grateful for those of you who have supported the Dial Hope Foundation with a financial donation. Hope reaches others because of you. Thank you!

The book of James instructs us, “Be slow to speak, quick to listen.”

Sometimes we’re like the couple who were sitting with some friends and the subject of marriage counseling came up. Mary said, “Oh, Tom and I will never need counseling. We have a great relationship. He was a communications major in college and I majored in drama. He communicates really well and I just act like I’m listening!”  

One of the wisest people I’ve ever met was an older Catholic nun who had served all over the world. I met her at a Catholic retreat center in Geneva Switzerland. She had a presence about her. Every word she spoke was thought through, and she really took the time to get to know each of us personally. I was there with a group of students – most of us studying to be pastors. She reminded us that the greatest gift you can a person is to listen to them. Not the kind of listening you do, while you’re watching tv, or on your phone, or while you’re thinking about what you’re going to say next. But the kind of listening, where you take the time to hear both the words that are being said and the feelings that are behind those words.  

Presbyterian scholar and pastor Eugene Peterson echoes these thoughts. He once wrote: “You enter into the soul, the spirit of somebody else by listening to them, not by telling them something.”

Today may you be slow to speak and quick to listen. May you give the people around you the gift of someone who cares enough to listen.

Let us pray: O Lord God, we have said some things we wished we hadn’t. We all know firsthand the pain that words can cause, and the pain of words withheld or used carelessly. I pray that today you would heal any old wounds we carry, but then move us to a place where we are more content to listen than to speak. Remind us of the value and the grace that is given in a listening ear. Thank you for listening to us this day. Amen. 

Today’s message was written by Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

I want to begin this meditation with a passage from the New Testament, 1 Peter 1:22: “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.” 

The late musician Duke Ellington said his doctor once told him that the bug disease kills more people than any other disease in the world. It is very important, therefore, not to let anything bug you! The Duke’s doctor wasn’t talking about germs. He was alluding to the tensions of living and our relationships with others. 

One of the most destructive stresses of life is hatred. If you let yourself hate, the chances are that the one you hate won’t get sick – you will! Loving your neighbor instead of letting him bug you is the very best way to avoid such tension and illness. 

Doctors find that Jesus’ admonition to love one another is good sound medical advice. Freedom from the bug disease brings not only a healthy body but also peace of mind, a happy life, and continuous hope. 

Memorize this beautiful passage from the Old Testament book of Proverbs: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22) 

Let us pray: Loving God, we acknowledge that life is a mixture of light and dark, ease and difficulty, joy, and distress. Today we pray especially for those who now experience the darker side; those who grieve, those who struggle with personal problems, those who feel neglected, those whose lives are touched by illness or despair, those who are tired and scared. Let the hope that comes from Jesus Christ infuse them with healing, love, strength, and courage. Save us all from the bug disease of hatred, bitterness, and cynicism. Now let the word of joy and hope that is in the gospel ring in our ears with new truth and fervor this day. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.