A client recently said, “Dr. Dixie, I heard a news story about a man who jumped 35 stories, attempting suicide, but miraculously lived when he hit a car parked at the curb, broke the back window and fell into the back seat. He broke both legs, but survived.
When the car owner expressed concern that her damaged car wouldn’t be repaired by her insurance company, reporters criticized her for being uncaring. Am I bad because I sympathize with the car owner? I am increasingly intolerant of people who do dumb things to themselves and others, oftentimes with disastrous results.”
We live in a world where “breaking news” an- nounces a house fire in Timbuktu fifteen seconds after it ignites. The angry, "intolerant" emotions you’re experiencing are produced by information overload. Your impatience isn’t necessarily an indication of being bad; it does show you lack wisdom in what you choose to listen to daily.
We need to ask, “Do I really need to know about this guy jumping out of a skyscraper and landing in a car? Is it really my concern that the car owner seems more anxious about her car than his life?”
I’m certainly not suggesting that we should ignore people’s hurts, or become callous toward the genuine needs that we can help meet. But we absorb far too much idle chatter erroneously called “news”. Information overload becomes frustration when we’re repeatedly alerted to needs we can’t meet. We have the pre-early, early, regular, mid-day, early-evening, evening, late-evening and post-lateevening editions of the news. By the time we’ve listened to 47 repetitions of the early morning “breaking-news” murder, it seems like we’ve been informed of 47 murders. According to Wikipedia, bad news coverage outweighs good news 69% to 31%. A steady diet of hopeless negativity always produces anxiety and frustration. Intolerance toward people comes from hardening our hearts, as we try to protect avoid helplessness and frustration.
In those times that we can’t avoid the negative or pointless "news", our first response should be to pray for those caught in difficult situations-even when it’s self-imposed. In prayer, we’re more likely to see people through Jesus’ eyes. Instead of seeing the guy that jumped out of the window as an idiot, we can recognize his hopeless neediness, and pray for restoration. And even though we might understand the car owner’s frustration that she will have to deal with insurance and out-of-pocket repairs, through the eyes of Jesus, we are more likely to pray that her life perspective will become less self-centered.
When we understand it isn’t our responsibility to fix a crisis in "Timbuktu", we can pray for those involved, and choose to put the situation aside, con- fident that God is always at work in the lives of peo ple, simply because He loves us!
Often we use so much energy being frustrated about people and things we can’t change, that we have no strength left to spend on what we really can change! In John 21, the risen Lord Jesus is conversing with Peter. After asking him three times, “Do you really love Me?” Jesus tells Peter that he will die a martyr’s death (v.18). Peter immediately looks around at John, asking, “What about him?” In verse 22, Jesus’ response was very straightforward: “…what concern is that of yours? You follow Me!”
(Galatians 6:1-2, 5 Message) “…if someone falls into sin…save your critical comments for yourself.
You may need forgiveness before the day is out!
Stoop down and reach out to the oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law…each of you must take responsibility for doing your creative best with your own life…”
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