Hope Beyond the Headlines

You scroll down on your phone or computer; sickening headlines make your gut clench. Stories of war, hatred, violence, bloodshed… the list goes on and on.

You click away, your head spinning. Images flood your mind, blaring article titles seared in your brain. As much as you try to drown it out—the noise, the pain, the heartache, the shattered souls–it only intensifies.

Because the hard reality is that today’s news isn’t what we want to hear, and try as we might, there is no way to escape or change it.

This is the world we live in. Its brokenness is the result of the fall.

And sometimes, even those of us who have trusted Christ for eternal salvation, struggle to see hope beyond those heart-rending headlines.

It Teaches Us to Rest on God’s Sovereignty

We don’t like to admit it, but as humans, we’re naturally dependent. We hate dependence; we strive for independence. To be dependent on another is to feel out of control—and we love being in control.

I don’t know about you, but personally, I’ve tried to take things into my own hands way too often. A relationship. A test. A dilemma of suffering. But when something like gut-wrenching headlines rocks my world, my self-centered mind falls prey to desperation. Because I can’t take the headlines into my control. It just doesn’t work. As a sinful human being, something like the evening news tears the last shred of perceived control out of my hands.

I’m forced to acknowledge my dependence on something–Someone–else. And that’s uncomfortable. Because if we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t always look to the Someone who can fill the God-sized hole in our hearts. We look to ourselves, we may even look to other sinful, finite people, but we fail to look to God.

But if we look to our sovereign God, He will offer rest for our hearts that ache for something better than the broken headlines we see everyday.

1 Timothy 6, ESV, perfectly captures the essence of God’s sovereignty. The last part of verse 15 describes God as, “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

The King of kings. The Lord of lords.

Those are powerful words. And while an unbeliever may shy away from this sense of Someone else’s utter control over their life, the Christian can take deep comfort in these words.

That theme of utter sovereignty shows up again in Isaiah 40:15, ESV, “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust.”

God is in control, over our lives and over the headlines.

Friend, it’s time to stop holding on to something you can’t control. Every time those headlines create a knot of fear in your stomach, surrender that fear to God. Give it to Him with the prayer that He will use it for good and His glory.

God is sovereign over everything. Not even a sparrow goes unnoticed (Matthew 10:29). Rest in God’s sovereignty and the unwavering rock of Christ.

Trust that He is in control of the headlines.

It Forces Us to Cling to Our Only Hope

Hope is not a theme we see in the news today. Or, at least, not on the surface.

The news is full of darkness. Futility. Worthlessness.

And if you allow yourself to scroll too many headlines, click on too many heart-rending news stories, it’s much too easy to sink into a deep hole of depression.

We struggle to see the light in the dark. We’re so consumed with ourselves, our world, and the depressing news around us that we can’t see beyond the dark.

Psalm 112:4 brings us a ray of hope, “Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.”

Light dawns in the darkness. Isn’t that beautiful? For those of us who are in Christ and walk in His ways, the dark is just an invitation to lift our eyes from the headlines and look to Christ’s marvelous light.

That hope, that light, is fulfilled in Christ’s sacrificial death and in the refuge He offers us among the storm-tossed sea. And we have a choice: we can choose to accept the hope, the light He offers us–or we can choose to wallow in our misery and depression.

Friend, lift your eyes.

There is hope beyond the headlines. There is light beyond the darkness that comes from war and strife and division and persecution.

Embrace the light. Cling to Christ who is our only hope.

It Teaches Us to Embrace a Better Picture

Too often, the suffering that we see every day in the headlines tempts us to despair. Like I said before, it can drive us to depression, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and little faith.

I want to challenge you to see a better picture. The better picture. The whole world is crying out to be made new, to be made whole and perfect and beautiful again, and there’s only one hope for that.

Romans 8:18 states, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Maybe the “sufferings of this present time” are preparing us for something. Without the brokenness of the world, who would long for something higher and better and more beautiful? Without the evil that we see every day in the headlines, why would we desire an abode with a perfect and holy God?

2 Corinthians offers us a reason for this suffering that we see, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,” (2 Cor. 4:17).

The brokenness of this world is only a backdrop for a glorious day in Heaven with no more tears and no more pain.

There Will Come a Day

The next time you scroll on your phone or turn on your T.V. only to see disaster and bad news, lift your eyes to this unfading hope. Allow yourself to look beyond the heart-rending headlines and see God’s sovereignty, the hope He offers in Christ, and the promise that soon there will come a day when fear no longer grips us, and our faith will be made sight.