Developing a Social Conscience, and How World Magazine Can Help
Do you care about the world? Honestly?
I can truthfully say that I personally do not care about people around the globe. I naturally care about my own country, about people who look and talk like me, and that I do not naturally have a great concern for others in foreign lands.
This is a problem. It is a problem, for example, that when I get a newspaper, I am far more drawn to the sports or arts section than I am the world section. This is not good. I am a quintessential American in this regard. I have a strong appetite for entertainment, for things that, in the end, really don't matter, while I have a very weak appetite for global events, for pain and suffering and genocide and famine, that in the end matter very much.
If you are like me, I would encourage you to subscribe to World magazine. World is an evangelical answer to Time or Newsweek that approaches world events from an evangelical (actually, reformed) perspective. It has a decidedly global focus, but this focus is, as I just noted, from a Christian worldview, and thus the magazine seeks not simply to report news, but to inform Christians on how to think and pray about them. In the most recent issue, for example, there is considerable coverage on the Darfur genocide. Reading this coverage helped me to know how to pray for the region. This is invaluable. It is so very easy to hear about Darfur for a flickering moment on tv or the web and then completely forget it. But thousands--millions--have been killed in this region, and we Christians need to pray and to give to reputable organizations to fight evil and advance the gospel.
If you are like me, then you struggle to care about what really matters. The first step to solving this problem is to square with it, to admit that you don't really care about world events. The second step is to repent before God, and the third step is to take action. A key part of that third step can be subscribing to an evangelical magazine that is well-written, well-researched, and gospel- and mission-oriented. World is 50 bucks for a year, which comes out to a dollar to a week, which is a very small price to pay to be informed on how to pray for the world. Subscribe to World (they're not paying me to say this--in fact, they don't even know I exist), and join me in seeking to develop a conscience for the world and for the billions of people who suffer in darkness each day.
I can truthfully say that I personally do not care about people around the globe. I naturally care about my own country, about people who look and talk like me, and that I do not naturally have a great concern for others in foreign lands.
This is a problem. It is a problem, for example, that when I get a newspaper, I am far more drawn to the sports or arts section than I am the world section. This is not good. I am a quintessential American in this regard. I have a strong appetite for entertainment, for things that, in the end, really don't matter, while I have a very weak appetite for global events, for pain and suffering and genocide and famine, that in the end matter very much.
If you are like me, I would encourage you to subscribe to World magazine. World is an evangelical answer to Time or Newsweek that approaches world events from an evangelical (actually, reformed) perspective. It has a decidedly global focus, but this focus is, as I just noted, from a Christian worldview, and thus the magazine seeks not simply to report news, but to inform Christians on how to think and pray about them. In the most recent issue, for example, there is considerable coverage on the Darfur genocide. Reading this coverage helped me to know how to pray for the region. This is invaluable. It is so very easy to hear about Darfur for a flickering moment on tv or the web and then completely forget it. But thousands--millions--have been killed in this region, and we Christians need to pray and to give to reputable organizations to fight evil and advance the gospel.
If you are like me, then you struggle to care about what really matters. The first step to solving this problem is to square with it, to admit that you don't really care about world events. The second step is to repent before God, and the third step is to take action. A key part of that third step can be subscribing to an evangelical magazine that is well-written, well-researched, and gospel- and mission-oriented. World is 50 bucks for a year, which comes out to a dollar to a week, which is a very small price to pay to be informed on how to pray for the world. Subscribe to World (they're not paying me to say this--in fact, they don't even know I exist), and join me in seeking to develop a conscience for the world and for the billions of people who suffer in darkness each day.
Labels: darfur, missions, world magazine
posted by Owen at 1:00 PM
1 Comments:
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Bethany. Time - Time and less time, otherwise I would love to read your paper on James, it sounds interesting, from your little ad. And we used to subscribe to World, but got to the point where it was not being read. Maybe when life slows down some here in the fast-paced suburb of East Machias.
Soon to be a seminary grad - !!
May the Lord be with you.
Al (Not Owen's dad or that other "Al".)
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