How Can We Pray When Overwhelmed by Information?

In the warp-speed cycle of digital news, caring for our souls requires time in God's Word, time away from our devices, and a reminder that we're called to faithfulness, not success.

In his book Every Moment Holy, Douglas Kaine McKelvey offers "A Liturgy For Those Flooded by Too Much Information."

"We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord," he writes,

"than we can rightly consider,

of more suffering and scandal

than we can respond to, of more

hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice

than we can engage with compassion.

".... remind us that we are but small

and finite creatures, never designed to carry

the vast abstractions of great burdens,

for our arms are too short and our strength

is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and

redemption, are your great labors.

"…. Give us discernment,

to know when to pray,

when to speak out,

when to act,

and when to simply

shut off our screens

and our devices,

and to sit quietly

in your presence,

casting the burdens of this world

upon the strong shoulders of the one who

alone

is able to bear them up.

Amen."