Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone. 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 are asking the question, do you jump to conclusions? And this is prompted by an article I read in the New York Times this week about Mark Sanchez. Now, Mark Sanchez is a former NFL quarterback, most notably with the New York jets, and then after his time with the jets, kind of bounced around the league. Also a former high level college quarterback at the University of Southern California. Uh, and Sanchez recently was in the news because late at night in Indianapolis he was stabbed. And that story came out. As you might imagine, it was big news. Former NFL star who was in Indianapolis to be the, uh, color commentator of an Indianapolis Col. Las Vegas Raiders game and late one night in the heart of the city was stabbed. And the story kind of initially went this way. Prayers for Mark Sanchez, devastated to hear what's going on in our cities. Why can't we be safe anymore? Poor guy just trying to do his job, et cetera, et cetera. And that story made sense for about 24 to 48 hours when the news story broke that actually Sanchez was the culprit. Turns out a 69 year old truck driver was sitting in the parking lot of the hotel just doing his job. He drove a truck recycling the cooking oil that they used. 69 years old hearing aids in both ears. Just uh, a hard working guy there to do a job. When Sanchez, who was incredibly intoxicated, allegedly climbed into his cab, argued with the guy, but whether or not he should be there was very aggressive, so aggressive, the truck dr, in fear for his life, stabbed Sanchez. Since the story has been amended, Sanchez has been charged with a multiple misdemeanors and now even a felony with potentially more charges pending. Now this story is really not about Mark Sanchez or the events that happened in Indianapolis because obviously details are still coming out. This is about our tendency as people and as a culture to jump to conclusions, to even see things, stories, facts, data through the lens we've already decided to see them through. So if you had decided, for instance that athletes are usually in the right or they're the winners and so we should side with them. Or if you decided that American cities or wastelands and rife with criminals and therefore that must have been what happened here, you saw the story one way, but turns out you were wrong. And I just want toa take a second to acknowledge that. Jumping to conclusions, this tendency we have as a culture to need to respond right away, to take an opinion, to have a side right away, typically takes us to some foolish places. Let me just remind you of this. Let's start here. Uh, the Lord, According to Proverbs 12:22, Hate lying lips. The Lord values the truth. The Bible tells us to value the truth. And you know what? If you respond right away, you cannot possibly know that you're responding to what is true. When did we lose the ability to say, you know what? I don't know what I think yet. I need to let all the facts come out. I don't know enough. One article, one tweet, one video clip doesn't make me an expert. Um, I'm taking a wait and see approach because if we don't do that, we're going to end up saying something that isn't true, unintentionally or intentionally. Here's the second thing. The Bible tells us over and over again that God's justice is not rushed. Keep in mind that God knows everything. He sees everything, he's never wrong. And yet even he often takes time in bringing justice. 1 Corinthians 4, 5 says, he will bring to light what is hidden, not right away, not on our timetable, but eventually. If God, who sees all and knows all, does not feel the need to respond right away, then why do you and I. Here's why I think we do. The media, uh, is designed to get visceral reactions from us. You know, Jesus talks about false teachers, those who lead us away from God. And he tells us in Matthew 7:15, they will come to us in sheep's clothing. Can I let you in on something? Most of the quote unquote news organizations out there present themselves as though their job is to inform you, when actually their job is to keep you clicking. Immediate reactions keep us going down. YouTube rabbit holes and news organization algorithms. But they don't actually take us to the truth. They don't actually ``form us into people who can benefit society. And that's because to benefit society is to practice this old idea in the Bible of sober mindedness. 1 Peter 5, 8 says, Be alert and have a sober mind. What a sober mind is, it's someone who's not reeling from one story to the next, not feeling as though they have to respond constantly. Listen, we have to get better at this because if we get hardwired to immediately hear something and have an opinion, it won't just be Mark Sanchez and what's happening in the news, it'll be the way we respond to those around us. Immediately feeling like we have to zing them with quick opinions because that's the muscle we have built. How about instead we build the muscle of patience, the muscle of listening, of waiting until we know more, of being sober minded? We might find that there are a few less news organizations getting our clicks and a few more healthy relationships benefiting from our patients. 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. 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Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!