Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hey, everybody, this is Pastor Chuck Allen, and I want to thank you for joining me for another faith conversation here on the weekday podcast. You know, we are living in the loudest season of outrage most of us have or possibly ever will see.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I don't mean volume, I mean velocity.
The constant hum of anxiety that rides under everything we scroll through, we watch, or for that matter, what we talk about.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: The cultural air is so thick with hot takes and with outrage. It's just fascinating to me. Researchers say that about three out of every four people in intensive mental care or mental health care report that political climate is hurting their mental health. And over half say they try to avoid political conversations in entirely because it leaves them angry, hopeless, or just plain exhaustion. It also shows that it leads us to depression.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: And listen to this. Higher rates of divorce. And it isn't that. That, that it feels like it sometimes. It feels like it's that way all the time. And you know what it feels like all the time?
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Stinking. Exhausting.
When polarization rises, so do anxiety and depression by more than 50%.
Now, we tell ourselves this is just how things are now. But, y', all, that's not true. It's how we've chosen to allow them to be and how we've chosen to live.
News feeds are discipling us more than scripture is. Comment sections are shaping our souls more.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Than the spirit of God. And make no mistake, this isn't just out there. It's in here in the church. And by the way, it's in our hearts. It's inside our homes.
Our families are strained, our marriages are.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Torn apart, and parents and children often are barely speaking. We have mistaken outrage for righteousness. Okay, that's worth tweeting. We have mistaken outrage for righteousness. And the truth is, political division isn't bad for America. It's just bad for our soul.
Jesus once asked this question in Mark 8:36, he says, what do you benefit.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: If you gain the whole world but.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Lose your own soul?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Maybe that includes winning the argument, but losing peace. Peace being the greatest commodity we can have. Winning is not. But peace is. So here's the question.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Are we going to be? Or maybe I should put it this way. Are you and I going to be part of the problem, or are we going to be part of the healing? Because followers of Jesus don't get to choose sides over choosing love.
There's no both and option here. We either salt and light or we're gasoline and matches. Salt preserves what's beautiful. It keeps it from decay.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Light reveals truth and it opens eyes, gas and matches. Will they burn down everything inside, including our relationships, our marriages, our families, and our mental and emotional and physical health?
[00:03:16] Speaker A: And all of those might have been healed rather than burned down.
So maybe today's invitation is so wildly simple. Turn down the volume of outrage and turn up the frequency of grace.
One way that I've learned to do that is when I see someone, I can see them as an image bearer, meaning they were made in the same image of God I was that Jesus loves them too.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: That Jesus died for them as well. And by the way, he called us to love them.
Maybe it's one less argument and one more prayer.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Maybe it's one less post and one more conversation.
Because every bridge starts with choosing not to throw one more stone. Friends, thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast. And let us be a people that choose not to build walls, but to build bridges.
Be a people that don't want to add more confusion and noise, but add more peace and joy.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: And it can be done as we walk more dearly and more closely with the Lord Jesus. Thanks for listening in. I look forward to being back with you again tomorrow for another weekday podcast.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Have faith on conversation. Bye now.
