The human frame was not made to live in constant crisis mode. Adrenaline can give a needed boost in the event of a crisis, but adrenaline is a toxin in the system if it pulses there for too long. Living in perpetual crisis mode is sure to produce anxiety problems and may even result in emotional or physical breakdown.
Somehow I suspect the media isn’t worried about our wellbeing. They have news to sell, and nothing sells like a crisis. In 2020, they had four major ones for sale. Let’s consider these in a better light. Let’s ditch crisis mode in favor of giving thanks.
First, the media has been offering Covid-19 for sale as a crisis. To be fair, when it first arrived, it looked like it might be a crisis. Here was a highly contagious airborne virus that killed 3% to 10% of those who contracted it. But when the data came in, that estimation steadily diminished, first by a factor of 2, then by a factor of 5, then of 10, and now of over 100 (the mortality rate is now hovering somewhere around .1%). Average life expectancy in the USA was 70 in 1960; It was 78 in 2018 and 2019, and it’s 78 in 2020. Imagine that! The year 2020 hasn’t reduced life expectancy to year 2000 levels (77 years), 1990 levels (75 years), 1980 levels (74 years), 1970 levels (71 years), let alone 1960 levels or the twenty-some-odd years people were expected to live during the Black Plague. Christians should receive this news with an “amen, praise the Lord, Hallelujah”, but the media may never come out of their crisis mode.
Second, the media is offering Racial Injustice for sale as a crisis. Everyone agreed on who had the most punchable face in America when that man knelt on another man’s neck for over 8 agonizing minutes. But the media discovered a way to transpose that face over the faces of every cop in America. Then it was every “white” face in America. Racial grievance replaced sports as the hottest ticket in town. “White Fragility” became the biggest book of 2020 and even many churches jumped on the bandwagon, promoting books like Nathasha Morrison’s “Be The Bridge”. But Christians already have a Bridge. His Name is Jesus. His finished work already destroyed every racial dividing wall of hostility. He already made us into a new race in Himself, where there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, or any such derogatory thing as “white” or “people of color”. Christians should receive this news with an “amen, praise the Lord, Hallelujah”, but the media may never come out of their crisis mode.
Third, the media is offering Climate Change for sale as a crisis. There have been wildfires in California, an unusually high number of hurricanes, and there may even be evidence of a degree or two variation in average global temperatures in recent decades. But Christians know the God who controls fire, wind, and air. We know that He promised to never again destroy the world with a flood. And since shoreline real estate in Florida hasn’t gone down in value after all these years of the media’s fear-mongering, it appears that even the free market knows what’s really not likely to happen. Christians, of all people, should be saying “amen, praise the Lord, Hallelujah”, but the media may never come out of their crisis mode.
Fourth, the media is offering The Election for sale as a crisis. It’s the end of the world as we know it, or so they would have us believe. But Christians know the God who turns the heart of King like a watercourse. We know that God wrote US history and no matter how the media tries to rewrite what has already happened in the past, what God has written for the future is sure to come to pass. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
The media may never come out of their crisis mode. Indeed, they make more money when they amp things up. Maybe that’s why a lot of people look at me strange when I say that I’ve loved the year 2020. To me, the four so-called crises of 2020 never looked the part. They never really got my adrenaline up. It’s not that I simply said “meh”, indifferent to the suffering of others. Rather, I didn’t buy the media narrative that each of these things were existential threats. I wasn’t indifferent this year; I actually did quite a bit of speaking out in 2020. It’s just that what I said usually cut in the opposite direction of what the media was trying to sell. I ran the data through the filter of God’s Word. Then I refuted the narratives that contradicted the Biblical worldview. And I wasn’t the only one. Cornerstone Church has taken this approach throughout 2020. It is the way of thankfulness over against the media’s crisis and grievance industry. The waters of thankfulness are pleasant, and we hope you’ll join us here.
