As a journalism major, we used to talk a lot about making stories connect with readers. Lucky for me [that’s tongue-in-cheek, in case you couldn’t tell], my big break into the newspaper industry had me beat reporting for city council, police and agriculture. I learned more than anyone ever wanted to know about boll weevils!

City council and police were pretty interesting sometimes, though it was difficult to make a personal connection with something as cut-and-dried as a DWI arrest, and carrying a police scanner to church on Sundays when I was on call (this was pre-Smartphone days) was for the birds. I still remember one day when a lady called the office and griped me out thoroughly for failing to list obituaries in that morning’s paper. My response: “Uh, Ma’am? No one died.”

Now that I’m on the receiving side of the news rather than the reporting side, it’s easy to get settled into my little comfort zone and forget that there is a big, dark world out there. Wildfires, earthquakes, serial killings … we want to think of those things as being far, far away. It’s hard to stay in my naive bubble, however, when I hear stories too close to home  – stories with “pastor” and “murder” in the same sentence, or allegations involving teachers and students.

My heart breaks and desires the truth above all else.

“Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Psalm 25: 5-6 (NIV)