Burnt Out By Bad News

Do you ever get burnt out by bad news? 

I know I do.  It doesn't even need to be my bad news, but someone else's that brings me down.  You see, I have a different perspective on life now that I know Christ, but it isn't the warm and fuzzy pollyannism you run into on Sunday mornings.  No, life tends to throw me hard balls.  Is it my fault?  Do I pay too much attention to the suffering and pain in this world?  Perhaps I should just relegate myself to the blissful ignorance that seems to disengage everyone else around me.

Everyday I am exposed to the philosophical poison this culture defines itself by.  At work, the radio pounds its stupefaction through my skull.  In one song, a rapper blabs about how women are worse than dogs and the next song oozes self-pity as to why a lonely old country boy can't get any of them to stick around.  

Pretty girls walk by us men.  I stare at the ground, others gawk.  Excitement stirs as men reveal their inner passions in terms of what they would do if only they had the chance.  All the while, the same men profess their sincere allegiance to their significant others, who seem less significant and more like property (the more I see their actions.)

I am discouraged.  I struggle in my marriage.  It is really hard work.  I have such a difficult time taming my eyes and pulling the rest of my body into subjection.  Nevertheless, I am told that before I even think of having children I ought to give my wife a few years just to see if it will work out...  Apparently, marriage vows are as insignificant to them as the relationships they endure!  How is it that we have so completely disavowed commitment from our national conscience?!  Have we not learned anything through the shock and trauma of having our families ripped to shreds by divorce!  Perhaps it would be easier to be married if my eyes were not for my wife and if I surrendered my body to unmitigated lusts and pleasures.  Perhaps, but if so, marriage would not be anything more than a prolonged sleepover, which is about how much sentiment this nation gives the sacred institution.

I hurt.  I feel alone in a world gone crazy.  Love scarcely exists and I struggle even to find it within myself.  My mind conjures questions like, "Ok the Indian government evacuated nearly half a million people from the looming destruction of Cyclone Phailin.  I wonder how many of them were Dalits (Asprushya- or untouchables)?  Did they receive the same warnings and accomodations as the Brahmins?"  Why?!  Why?!  Why do I care?!  Why can't I just keep going about my business and worry about myself!?

You should know what I am feeling!  I turn on the news and am greeted by another disaster!  I check my e-mail just to see another political scandal!  I hop on Facebook only to read about a friend's custody dispute with her ex-husband!  We live in a day where the media takes all of the world's worries and woes and sends them aimlessly crashing through the neat and tidy corridors of our hearts.  Nothing is left unbroken.  

It's depressing!  That girl whose face is posted on the wall at Wal-Mart has most likely been dragged through the foreign sex market, but we don't bother to look.  We have seen too much!  Our emotions are burnt out by bad news.  We simply sigh, grab a cart, and go on to buy our cheese and toilet paper.  What a world...  We are hopeless, utterly hopeless, and somehow we think we can do this life on our own.  We couldn't even conceive ourselves on our own let alone navigate our destinies.  How foolish, insensible, and heartless are we who curl up within the confines of our cozy spaces, count our "rights", and pretend to not see the desperate need this world has for redemption.  

Only the Christian faith offers it.