Don’t Let the Media Stoke Your Fears About Putin, Ukraine, and World War III

Don’t be an easy mark for people who peddle fear for a living.

If you preach the gospel in all aspects with the exception of the issues which deal specifically with your time, you are not preaching the gospel at all.

— Martin Luther

Here’s how I operate — I look at the same world everyone else looks at, take note of where it’s most broken, and focus the gospel at that one point. Like a laser.

No doubt about it — at this very moment in time, there’s some scary stuff happening around the world. Wars, social unrest, economic downturns, random natural disasters, pandemics, and common everyday accidents all pose a real threat to our existence. What frightens us most is that almost all of it is beyond our control. There really isn’t anything we can do about it.

In our hearts, we know how vulnerable we are, and that makes us easy marks for those who peddle fear for a living. Our vulnerability is what drives us to the news and social media. We foolishly think we can change it by consuming what culture throws our way. Truthfully though, consuming culture only fans our fear into flame. It makes us even more anxious and fearful of the future.

But me? I have to be honest with you. My heart is pretty much at peace.  When I tell you that, I don’t want you to get the idea that I’m a man who has risen above the fray by my own will and strength. As it turns out, I have zero power of my own. In my fleshly, sinful heart, I’m just like you or anyone else. Satan tempts me to despair too. However, my strategy is to focus the gospel on my fears. When I do that, I realize that there’s a greater power at work in the affairs of mankind. 

No, I’m not a better person than the average person, that’s for sure. The only difference between me and the riled-up crowd can be found in who I trust. While the world puts its faith in human reasoning and human constructs, I decided years ago to put my confidence in someone far greater than myself or any other human. I looked at the track record of mankind, then looked at the awesome deeds of the Almighty, and I chose him. He is the one I follow.

I wrote a little study guide last year called “The C+ Gospel.” I called it that because I’ve said for years that I’m just a C+ kind of guy. An average dude. Right in the middle. Half of the world is smarter than I am. But I take comfort in the fact that the other half isn’t as smart as I am. And because I’m just average, I tend to boil things down to language that’s easy to understand. 

Yes, I like things simple. And since I like simplicity, here’s my easy-to-understand version of life: God created the cosmos by speaking it into being. Even though God bestowed his love on us by making us in his own image, we rebelled against him. We broke fellowship with God by declaring our independence from him. In spite of our act of treason against his authority, he still sent his Son to die in my place. But since I still needed to know that I can trust him to rescue me from my own sin, he raised Jesus from the dead. Then he promised that he would sit Christ at his right hand to intercede for me until he sends him back to resurrect my lifeless body from the grave. 

I have a question for you: If all of that is true, would I be able to live with purpose for the few short years I have on Planet Earth? Could I live with purpose regardless of what hard circumstances threaten me? The obvious answer is YES! I can. In fact, the good news of Jesus is the only narrative that gives mankind any hope at all. All of the other stories that mankind tells itself end up in a six-foot hole in the ground. There’s no hope in any of them.

However, Jesus said that those who trust him will live a different kind of life.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

— Matthew 6:25-27

This is the foundation of my worldview, and it’s why I’m not fretting too much about the future. I don’t like the turmoil at all, but simply put, my life is more than what I eat or wear.  It’s more than where I live. I’m neither afraid nor ashamed for one simple reason — I am valuable to my Father in heaven. He has my back. I am sure of that. And this is something I remind myself of every day. 

I am fully aware of the fact that bad stuff is unfolding every day.  From Ukraine and the threat of World War III to rising inflation and the dwindling supply of goods in stores, there’s a lot going on.  But I have two questions for you.

The first is, how much influence does our worry have on changing the outcome of any of these threats? Logically speaking? None at all. Jesus said all that worry is for naught. The only thing it changes is our hearts by stealing our joy.

Secondly, do we really want the quality of our short time on Earth to be defined by what we possess? I ask that because all of our “stuff” is fleeting. It won’t last long. Most of it is worn out before we finish making payments on it. So, is it possible to find purpose in something or someone greater than ourselves? Can we find purpose beyond the consumption of our toys? Something that has a purpose that lasts beyond that six-foot hole we were talking about earlier?

Here are the cold, hard facts for you. I am in the last years of my life. But the truth is, I’ve always been headed for the grave. My clock began ticking the day I was born, so I finally got it through my thick skull that I would invest in resurrection — in eternity. In something that would endure. The way I figure it, I’m okay no matter what happens. I’m trying with all my heart to trust God that he will continue to pour his love out on my sinful self and that he is going to make good on his promise to retrieve me from the grave. 

As a result of my rejection of human wisdom and values, I’m relying on this promise:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

— Matthew 7:7-8

Every day, I ask, seek, and knock. And I will continue to do that until I breathe my last breath.  So far, God has been faithful in keeping his promise to give me an eternal purpose. I think I’ll live fearlessly by sticking with him the rest of the way.