Course Content
Learning to consider and be concerned for the people whose lives are being affected by the events we see in the news.
The headline on my smartphone read “Big Oil Shelves $200bn in Projects.” The article went on to describe how the world's big energy groups have embarked on a round of cost-cutting aimed at protecting investors' dividends as crude oil prices fell for the second time this year. Normally I would skip right over a story searching for something more “interesting.”
This time I paused and actually thought about what this headline meant. It meant real people are losing jobs, which will set off a chain reaction in their personal “life pipeline”—with real consequences, some possibly life-changing. Big headlines about what big companies do make an impact on people.
What caused me to really think about the headline was a conversation I had had at dinner last night. I was with a friend who works for one of those big oil companies, and he was describing to me the immediate cutbacks his company is making and what that might mean for him and his family. “Hey,” I said to myself, “I know someone impacted by that headline.” Real headlines involve real people.
At the same dinner I also talked with a man whose son was a student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 29, 1999, when two students opened fire, killing 12 students and one teacher. The boy was trapped in the cafeteria and had to walk out over the bodies of his dead classmates. That trauma still impacts all the families involved in that tragedy. Here I was sitting and talking to one of the members of one of those families. Real headlines involve real people.
It's easy to glide over the headlines and events happening all over our world. They can be abstract and unsettling to us for a few minutes. But then the events of life crowd them out and we move on. So much is going on in the world and we cannot possibly take it all in. But maybe we should take a lesson and stop and think.
Jesus said not one sparrow falls to the ground that the Father does not note. So the hairs of our head are numbered, and He does not forget us or anything that happens to us. It is a comforting and encouraging thought (Luke 12:6-7). God pays attention to us and nothing is too small or too great for Him to notice and express care and concern.
The next time I see a headline such as the one above, or hear an emergency siren racing through the streets–on its way to an accident–I want to remember there is someone whose life is impacted by that headline or that emergency vehicle. And I will say a prayer asking God to watch over those involved. If my heavenly Father does this, then why can’t I?
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
