How quickly and easily we can be influenced….<3

Hello to you on a sunny and already quite warm Monday from here in the Midwest. 

I have been reading How God Became King  by N. T. Wright as part of my morning devotion time. Since the book is on loan from John, I am being intentional to not mark it up, so I take notes in my journal. 

I have read a few pages at each sitting and am on page 64 and already I find his premise shaping how I think about hymns, quotes, posts and sermons. 

The point of his book is that the church as a whole has missed the point as to the purpose of the four gospels and why they were written. He gives as his argument the seven common ways we see the gospels talked about and written/taught/preached but in his estimation, while all these are good and valid teachings from the gospels, they do not explain the point of why they were written. 

I will be honest, Mr. Wright is way more scholarly than I am and sometimes I have to wade through his writing as it is deeper than I am used to thinking, but I am picking up on what he is pitching out and thus I am noticing things I hadn’t noticed before. 

And this whole post really has nothing to do with the meat of the book I am reading. 

The actual point of this post is to go back and say, I am reading it in short doses daily and am only one quarter of the way through the book, and it affects my thinking and perception. 

So as I pondered that this morning I thought about how many days in the past year and a half I have read myriad thoughts and opinions and reports and facts regarding the pandemic, social trends, government upheaval and  erratic weather attributed to global warming.

I have taken in way more opinions daily than I realize at times. I have read all sides of all arguments until my head swims. 

So no wonder I have a lot going on when yet another conversation is presented to me regarding the ills of the world and the other “pan” issue, which is pandemonium. No wonder I feel overwhelmed when people ask me my thoughts regarding this or that new mandate. 

We have information overload and built into that is misinformation/accusations of misinformation and a lot of people who seem to be experts on medicine, the economy, the government, the climate…who really are not experts at all. 

All that to say, we can’t stick our head in the sand and go through the day clueless, but we also do not need to consume every news story, video, analysis, commentary that is offered. 

As for me…and my brain…I will prayerfully attempt to be informed enough to remain compassionate and educated, yet not so buried in what is happening at all levels of life on planet earth that I miss what is right in front of me. 

And I need to remember to do a fact check on my own reactions to any “news” I hear – because I may be letting some other source that is just someone’s opinion have far too much sway over my beliefs and convictions. 

Be careful out there. 

Be wise. 

Be encouraged. 

You are loved <3