Cameras are everywhere. Practically every person you see has a phone with a built-in camera. You find cameras in stores, businesses, parking garages and lots. About the only place you don’t find them are in public restrooms or dressing rooms in stores … and to be honest I’m not sure about that.
Attached to many of the cameras are people hoping to catch something that will give them 15 minutes of fame. They want their pictures or videos to go viral, hoping they’ll be picked up by the national news and broadcast for the world to see.
The insidious problem with that is that a video that runs a few seconds or minutes often takes things out of context; it doesn’t allow for what came before that might explain what is happening. Nor does it show what comes after. It’s an isolated bite of time which can be and often is misinterpreted. It can also damage a reputation or ruin a life.
The news media is on the hunt for just such things and will run stories without getting facts. The goal to report the news is often tainted by the demand for ratings higher than their competitors.
Fame. Ratings. This is what drives the media. It is not, however, what is to drive God’s beloved. When God looked out on the nation of Israel at the height of their idolatry, he gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for the nation. “Therefore, say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.’” [7:28]
That message could very well be for our nation, our church, our time – truth has perished. Beloved, let’s be careful in everything we read and see that we seek the truth before we respond, share, or pass anything on to someone else. It is imperative that we find the truth and speak the truth.
