My daily life has been very compressed in the past months. Speaking and advising, editing and writing, teaching and serving leaders: I am grateful waking up each day with purpose and people to encourage. In the coming months this site will be refreshed, and I am looking forward to a new season of communication. Thank you for your patience and prayers.

Information overload

Local, national, and global events assail us hourly and making sense of it all is more difficult. If someone says, “The sky is blue” there are immediate posts clarifying what blue means and whether the first commentator has the authority to speak about the sky! Yes, I am using humor and hyperbole…but this process can overwhelm us. For example:

• Israel carries out a targeted strike on Hezbollah bases. One or two outlets simply report the news…but hundreds in the antisemitic chattering class declare another, “genocidal action.” 
• A state court overturns extreme gerrymandering of voting districts. Immediately political proponents scream racism and the subversion of civil rights, failing to see the racial biases in maps that look like crazy Rorschach images and not sane geographies.
• Young women advocate that female sports remain biologically female for safety and an equal playing field. Headlines declare these athletes “transphobes” and politicians (especially on the Left) dance around the issue. 
• Radical Islamists living in Europe explicitly declare their aim of conquest and the imposition of Sharia Law. Opponents of such aims are branded intolerant and Islamophobic and the debate about the rule of law and religious freedom is truncated. 
• Christians are targeted for persecution globally and the world in mostly silent. People praying silently across the street from abortion clinics are arrested for their thoughts in Great Britian.  
• President Trump speaks without reflection, and some positive policies are lost in the uproar over his latest insults and observations. 

Some Insights

There are wonderful voices of sanity and women and men debating issues with civility. Unfortunately, the loudest and often least informed voices get too much attention. Making sense of events and ideas, information and issues requires maturity and thoughtfulness. Here are four insights that can help with sense-making and create pathways toward wisdom.

Insight One: There are significant spiritual and political forces at work that aim for control, all in the name of creating a better world. Totalitarian goals of micromanaging our lives are disguised with concepts of compassion, equity, fairness, and even saving the planet. Look deeply and there are ambitious global technocrats that believe they know what is best. What is out task here? Affirming axioms of freedom and virtue, faith and responsibility that lead toward human flourishing and refusing the relinquishment of freedom for security.

Insight Two: There really are people that hate freedom of conscience/speech and desire religious or secular control. The “Red-Green Alliance” of Radical Islam and Marxism is real. Both of these groups hate the Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment  philosophical and religious principles that lead to prosperity. Each group thinks they will win in the end…AND increasingly, each group in this unholy alliance is either advocating or excusing violence, while projecting their sins on their opponents. 

Insight Three: Even talented and thoughtful leaders can be corrupted by power. In the providence of God, abuses of power, financial evils, and sexual malfeasance are being exposed and the fallout is profound. We must own these grievous sins, engage in corporate lamentation and repentance, and humbly serve. We are all beautiful and broken, and when we forget that biblical faith is rooted in grace, pride begins subverting persons and institutions. 

Insight Four: While we must speak and work on vital issues with humility and wisdom, only a spiritual awakening can change the trajectory of neighborhoods and nations. This is not a call for passivity and disengagement. All Christians are commissioned for influence and impact in their spheres of relationships and work. At the same time, only the grace of God will turn enemies into friends and change hearts and minds. 

And one more thought

If we believe that our prayers matter, we will take time and pray that God’s grace and mercy will touch the hearts of those we disagree with the most. There are public figures that open their mouths and my first reaction is not holy! It is the next moment that determines personal and social pathways: we bless and intercede for the very ones who marginalize and persecute us.  May God help us be thoughtful, prayerful, and wise in these days of confusion and reaction.