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 is ignoring a holy habit? This is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal talking about your key survival skill for 2026 might just be something called critical ignoring. Now, that term, critical ignoring was coined by a Stanford University professor, Sam Weinberg, who basically, uses that phrase to articulate the skill that involves the rapid filtering of unreliable and unnecessary content in our lives. So, as you know from experience, we are in a, generation where we are being hit with information all the time, from scrolling through our phones to the sounds that are coming at us whether we want them or not. What Weinberg is arguing is that one of the most important skills for people in modern society is the ability to pretty quickly figure out who we should listen to and, and who we shouldn't listen to. Because between social media and artificial intelligence, more and more content is being generated. That's just not true and is certainly unhelpful. And people who are able to filter that out are going to flourish in 2026 more than those who are not. Now, I love this phrase, critical ignoring, but I love it not just for its societal impact. I love it for, for its spiritual impact as well. Because actually, believe it or not, the Bible has a lot to say about critical ignoring. In fact, as you think about the New Year, you probably have set a number of goals for yourselves, have a vision for what you want to see accomplished. I actually think that what you filter out might be almost as important as what you let in to your heart and your mind in the New Year. We are not just what we do and, and read and watch and think about. We are also what we don't watch, read, and think about. Consider this. In Psalm 101, the Psalmist is talking about his own vision for himself, his own goals. He says things like, I will sing of your steadfast love and justice to you, O Lord. I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity. Now all that is pretty boilerplate psalmist stuff. He's singing praises to God. He's talking about he wants his heart to be set on God. But listen to what he says next. He says, I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. Did you hear that? That's critical ignoring. The psalmist is saying hey, as I look out at my life, as I look out at the year that is waiting for me, here's what I wanna do. But here's also what I don't wanna do. I don't wanna put anything before my eyes that is worthless. Anything that's a distraction, anything that will take me off mission or off direction from God where you want me to be. So of course critical ignoring is a spiritual habit. And it's one that maybe we don't think about and talk about enough. So here's my question to you. Don't make your plans for 2026 just about what you're going to do. Make it about what you're not going to do. What do you need to critically ignore? What sources? What apps on your phone? What routines do you need to recognize as simply being unhelpful that you need to move off of, get rid of in order to actually grow? God wants our heart. That's true. God wants our mind. He wants us to be filled with the scripture, to be under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. God has plans for us to in 2026, but we're only going to hear his voice if we're turning down the volume of the wrong voices in our lives. So the question I'm asking myself in 2026 is what do I need to stop doing? What do I need to stop paying attention to? What do I need to critically ignore so that I can become who God wants me to be? 2026 might just be the year of ignoring. And if it is, it might also be the year of growing. 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!