What it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn′t.
Looking for a better way to get up out of bed
Instead of getting on the Internet and checking a new hit me
Get up!
                                    -Macklemore, Can’t Hold Us

One morning I woke up, about 1999, and after hitting the snooze button a few times I picked myself up, headed out of my room, and put some bread in the toaster to make breakfast. I turned the TV on to whatever channel 55 had on at the time while I ate, got all of my homework and books together, and got on the bus to school.

This morning I got up (didn’t hit the snooze button, which I’m pretty proud of), made my way downstairs, and opened by phone while the toast was toasting. Within 10 minutes of getting up I met the Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and watched three different videos of them dying along with 65 other people.

I’ve read so much about how social media is a horror show, how mass media in general desensitizes us to violence and death. Today it hit me especially hard. It is impossible to scroll on any app – Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, whatever – without being exposed to human suffering and hatred. I’m reminded of Genesis 4:7, when God is speaking to Cain trying to guide him away from murdering his brother:

“Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Sin and evil lurk not at our doors, but in our phones and TVs and sound systems. Maybe they are lurking there to tempt us into patterns of sin and evil ourselves, but maybe they are lurking to desensitize us, or maybe they are lurking to damage our mental health. I know it doesn’t help my mental health to watch 67 people die before breakfast.

The wrong response to this is to shut out everything negative and pretend that the world is unicorns and sunshine, as nice as that would be. Jesus doesn’t ask us to cut out negativity from our lives or ignore people’s problems. But Jesus does remind us, over and over again, that we are not in charge. In Matthew 6 Jesus says:

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Tl;dr^[?]: It’s not wrong to worry, but prioritize your worries: focus on acting like you’re living in the kingdom of God, seek to do the right thing in your own life. Fred Rogers says to “look for the helpers” in times of tragedy, and Jesus tells you to be one of those helpers when you have the chance.

In my feed alongside, videos of death and tragedy, was an article titled “Generosity: A Solution to Atrocity” from Red Letter Christians. And I really needed a solution for atrocity. The proposed solution was to become experts in generosity and move beyond “thoughts and prayers” and writing checks. They write:

“We teach kids how to solve mathematical equations more than how to love their neighbors. Our televisions are flooded with military recruitment marketing, instead of resources on building sustainable peace in our world.

Our priority must become one another. Without this we will run the risk of depleting our own humanity to the point that the only person we genuinely care for is the one staring back at us in the mirror.”

May today’s tragedy, and every other one like it, push us not into apathy, callousness, depression, or panic – instead, may these tragedies challenge us to become generous humans, prioritizing the incredible miracles that are the lives of others. May we break the chains that enslave us to violence and blood on the headlines, so that we might be freed to build the kingdom of God.