Confessions of a News Junkie

I have a confession to make to everyone...I'm a news junkie. Whether it's reading articles on various Internet news outlets or watching the daily news during my lunch break, you can bet that a day doesn't go by that I don't do one or the other or both. I'm not sure when I became so interested in the news but it's been for many years now...maybe it goes back to when I would deliver newspapers as a kid? At any rate though, recently I've been taken aback at just how much of the news seems to be gloom and doom though. Not that it hasn't always been negative to some degree, but it seems especially bad now from talk about the environment, to world politics, to the global economy. It's all bad news!

A few years ago this kind of news would have gotten me worked up...maybe not visibly to anyone else, but internally for sure. Things can seem awfully hopeless if you let them. And yet there is almost always a silver lining to the dark days. Lately it's been impressed on me that God is desiring for believers to renew our minds and our thinking about such matters, and to look on these things with an eternal perspective. I hope that the body of Christ doesn't forget that we posses the good news people are looking for!

Recently I was in a prayer meeting here at work, and the subject came up of just how many people were losing their jobs. Being a faith based mission organization, all OMS missionaries are dependent upon raising support, so naturally when economic conditions worsen it causes concern and rightfully so. However, as I listened to people talking I felt God speaking to my heart to recount his goodness to me. He reminded me that it was because of an economic crash immediately after the world trade center attacks in 2001, that I wasn't able to find a job in my field of engineering. Due to that downturn and 7 months of subsequent unemployment, I ended up taking a ministry job working at a Christian camp in Colorado. Undoubtedly, I would have never taken that job had I been given the option of finding an engineering job. Furthermore, I'm certain that I wouldn't have chosen to work in full time missions had it not been for my experience at that camp.

My experience isn't unique either. One of the great men I have been privileged to meet during my time with OMS is Stanley Tam. I've heard him share his testimony several times now. During the time of the great depression, Stanley was absolutely broke and his business was failing. It was during this time that Stanley decided to give God his business. Today, the business still operates and over the years has given many millions of dollars towards world missions.

The times we live in are difficult indeed, but it's my hope that we will all find encouragement in Christ during these rough times. He alone is the only one worthy of putting our hope in. Certainly God is bigger than any economic condition we might face, and his word will go forth throughout the world.