Breaking News: There's Good News

When What You Hear Becomes What You Fear.

Introduction

On the 11th of September, 2001, two commercial planes crashed into the upper floors of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. I was 6 years old at the time it happened but I remember the day like it was yesterday. Sat in the living room with my parents watching CNN, I was glued to the screen, marvelled at the sight of two giant buildings coming down to the ground in a matter of seconds. The news travelled at the speed of light and somehow a shockwave of fear was transported across the globe. We were all thinking the same thing. “No one is truly safe in this world and we are all possible victims of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.” For several years (even though many would refuse to admit it), people would take a gulp of air in paranoia the moment someone who ‘appeared’ to be muslim sat next to them on a plane. This was the result of media driven fear and the reality of becoming what we consumed. It is the reality of how we are made to feel “when all hell breaks loose”. But after a while the world seems to move on. People return to business as usual until the next global shake up. I mean, just look at the global pandemic of 2020. Lives were lost, jobs were lost, and fear was instilled; once again.

The information that we consume has more power than we know. It has the power to completely change the essence of society. It has the power to keep us in our homes, the power to keep us away from travelling and the power to impose our fearful concerns over other people. If there is one thing that I have learned from the media driven aftermath of these global events is that fear leads to bondage.

Fear Leads To Bondage.

Living in bondage doesn’t always refer to your physical confinement, it is a state of mind where fear is the spirit that encapsulates your mental state of being. My personal experiences and health struggles led me into that cage of fear the more I became a partaker in the world's media driven narrative. The moment this changed was when I realised that my destiny and life’s purpose couldn’t be the by-product of any global narrative that was driven by fear.

Before we continue with this letter just take a moment to pause and think about the impact a report of breaking news has had on your life.

• What is the root of the narrative and how did it make you feel?

• What did you do to respond?

• Are you still living in the confinements of that report?

There are many people I know who are still living within the confinements of fearful global reports. I know families who have gotten so used to staying at home that the closest form of human interaction they have with others on a weekly basis is through a screen. I have an uncle who is afraid of eating eggs and butter out of fear due to the false media driven narrative that these foods produce unhealthy amounts of cholesterol. These are just a few examples but I'm sure you get my point now. The list is absolutely endless. In this crazy world that we live in, fear seems to be the currency of information. If we believe everything that we hear, there is the possibility of us becoming everything that we fear (Job 3:25).

We are in an age where people are beginning to recognise this. Statistics show that self discovery and spiritual soul searching in our generation is at an all time high. This has led many people turning to religion to seek the promises of better a hope that transcends the fearful reality of this world that we live in. Unfortunately many of these people, in their quest to find freedom, are only presented with more fear leading to bondage. Many religious promises offer blessings and solutions to earthly problems. This will provide you with a sense of solace. However, everything that is earthly is temporary, which means that your religious pursuit becomes a cycle of temporary solace. Under this system, your sense of solace becomes totally dependent on your performance, or circumstance. How is this a reassuring way to cast out fear? If anything, it leads to more fear and resentment because you have come to realise that you have believed in a god or religious system that couldn’t fulfil the promises you were searching for. The heart of Man isn’t looking for temporal solutions dependent upon cycles of responses to the things that lead you to fear. The heart of man is looking for rest in an eternal promise contingent upon our faith in it. (Hebrews 10:14)

You are What You Believe.

There is a passage of scripture that comes to mind as I write to you. The words of Christ himself.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33 KJV

Before I expand on this, let’s back-track a little. This letter started off with the example of global news producing fear in society. Then I spoke about coming to the realisation that you can’t believe everything you hear especially when what you hear is producing fear. Over here, Jesus isn’t promising the end to tribulation in this world, in fact he guarantees it. He is identifying himself as the one who has overcome the world already. He was speaking to the disciples who were struggling to believe that he is who he says he is because of the very tribulations we all experience in this world. In the world we are presented with ways, methods and systems to overcome. But right here Christ is stating that he has already overcome and our faith should be in this promise.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:4-5 NKJV

What this sounds like to me is something very similar to the news we hear through the media but very different at the same time. Similar because the news we consume in the world is definitive information that has already taken place or the proclamation of something imminent that we need to anticipate. It is Different because fear and uncertainty are no longer the fruits of trusting the message that we are called to believe. Just like the latest breaking news announcement that circulates the digital airwaves in the world, every report is a call to believe something. If there is a viral disease, or a terrorist security threat, or an imminent natural disaster; news always comes for your faith. If we can agree that fear is the issue, then can we at least guard our hearts to the reports that produce fear as opposed to taking it away?

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

Breaking News: There’s Good News

On a personal note, my spiritual journey, religious pursuit, or character development plan came to an end the moment I truly consumed the one news report that didn’t instil fear. This news report happened to be eternal and I didn’t have to travel far and wide to find it. It was right in front of me in the Bible I read every single morning. My personal quest to find peace didn’t result in me finding myself. My hard work didn’t result in me finding God either. My identity and true relationship with God came from God finding me. Through his breaking news report: That God came down and took on flesh, lived the perfect life I once tried to live, and died for the sins I constantly tried to pay for. He offered me the free gift of eternal life which I received through faith. This gift came with his spirit, a completely new identity that conquered death. If this spirit now lives in me, and God is for me, then who or what can truly be against me? Am I going to be a victim of the next global fear story? I think not. Am I going to be afraid of God leaving me to find peace, life and an identity all on my own? Absolutely not. Why? Because I have been perfected in love.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18 KJV

If you have been struggling with fear and the overwhelming influence of events that are happening in your life; fix your thoughts on what God has done for you and the promises he has made through his eternal plan of redemption. True peace, healing and restoration is found in the way, the truth and the life. Let us rest here.

Thank you to everyone of you who has subscribed! I Can’t believe we are at 1k subscribers now, i’m so grateful!