Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, do I have to care about everything? This is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal called Grammy Silence on Iran. basically it goes like this. If you're like me and you're not paying attention to these things, you may not know that recently the 2026 Grammy Awards, the awards for music, happened. And as tends to happen at these award shows, the artists who won took the opportunity of winning to make a variety of political statements. Mostly they focused on the current immigration issues in the United States and what they saw as the over policing of immigration and the destructive tactics of ice. They talked a lot about this. but what they didn't talk about is the focus of this article. The writer is saying, how come they're so outraged about immigration in the United States, for example, and they didn't talk at all about what's going on in Iran where political dissidents, young and old, are being killed right and left. In fact, the writer even made the point that some of the artists were wearing a red fist pen, which is supposed to be kind of stand up to power, which originated when Israeli soldiers were being lynched by Palestinian mobs. And he's saying, well, hold on a second. Are you against violence or are you not, are you paying attention and want to speak out about those who are being victimized, or do you not? And basically the article was saying, if you really cared about these things, you'd be talking about Christians in Africa, Afghani women, Iranian protesters. And I gotta tell you, I don't disagree with his point that musicians and movie stars are selective in their outrage. But, but I do disagree with this. I don't think selective outrage is a problem. In other words, I don't think you have to speak out about everything to speak out about anything. I don't even really know where that idea comes from. Nobody knows about every single issue going in the world. Nobody has the time or the platform to speak out about every issue in the world. And you can't invalidate someone's concern about some, let's call it issue A by saying, well, you didn't even talk about issue B. Well, you're right, they didn't, because their focus is issue A. This is part of the social media generation. Because I know what's happening or could know what's happening around the world. I am therefore responsible for everything that's happening in the world. I hear that all the time as a pastor. Well, you didn't mention this in your sermon. You haven't done a podcast episode on that. Yeah, full disclosure, I'm not going to get to everything. No one is except for God. This is where a little divine, sovereignty and human humility comes into play. Proverbs 15:3 says this. The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good. You see, as a Christian, I understand the fact that God sees everything that is happening. He keeps an account of everything that is happening. There's a reckoning coming for everything that is happening. It is not my job to see all, know all, or speak out about all. I, speak out about the things that matter to me, the things that I feel qualified to speak out about, the things the people I'm responsible for are asking about. Those are the standards I use. I'm not God. Neither are you, neither are any of the people who won a, Grammy. So, listen, you can take issue with the stance they take on any particular issue. What you can't do is say if you don't talk about everything, you can't talk about anything. Because that would mean you also can't talk about anything because you're not speaking about everything. And by the way, if you say, well, they're celebrities. They don't know what they're talking about. They should keep their mouths closed. If you want to apply the standard of, you can only speak if you thoroughly have exhausted the knowledge of an issue. Guess what, my friends? You and I aren't going to get to talk about much. Celebrities are no different than us. They're regular people who think they know more than they do, who think that their viewpoint is, is always right. Celebrities are like the uncle at Thanksgiving. Who you don't want to talk about politics, who are going to talk about politics. They don't care about whether it makes you comfortable and listen, challenge their views, take issue with their views, certainly take issue with them when they fly in the face of scripture. But don't hold them to a standard that only God can meet. And don't hold yourself or anyone else to, to that standard either. You don't have to care about everything to care about something. And in fact, I hope there is something that you do care about. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!