Regular visitors to this blog over the last few months will know that I have posted a lot about running and my preparations for the London Marathon which is now only five days away. The word 'marathon' has been in the news non stop since yesterday evening for all the wrong reasons.
Unless you have been in a media exclusion zone you can't have failed to hear about the tragic events at the end of the Boston Marathon, which is the world's oldest annual marathon and very popular with runners from across the world.
But how do we respond in the face of such events?
On Facebook and Twitter I have noticed a number of people pointing out that in Baghdad yesterday 31 people were killed and hundreds injured in a series of bomb blasts. They ask the question - why is it that Boston gets the headlines?
In different parts of the world today people will die - they will die as the result of terrorist bombs and guns; they will die in acts of war; they will die of starvation; they will die of perfectly preventable illnesses. There are simply too many cases to report - and therefore our news media chooses which tragedy we hear about and how it is reported. And most of the time we simply never hear about what is going on. Often, when we do hear, we simply absorb this information and the statistics wash over us. Occasionally something in the story brings events a little closer to home - and then we might have some reminder that these numbers are never simply statistics - they are people - they are families. And then we might be jogged to pray for those who are suffering. We might respond by donating to help those affected.
One of the questions that keeps being asked on one of the running forums that I contribute to is 'why?' Why do people carry out such seemingly mindless acts of violence against people who are totally innocent? But there is also an acknowledgment that good will not be overcome by evil. After the Boston explosions people ran towards the blast sites to help the injured.
For those of you who proclaim to be followers of Jesus how do we respond to these kinds of events that we see on our televisions?
In the short term, our hearts go out to those affected and we pray for them and for those who are seeking to help.
But in the longer term we also ask God to help us see the world through his eyes. God never sees us as statistics. We are individuals loved by God. Across our hurting world there will be numerous families who will be grieving today - very few of those situations we will hear about on the news, the majority we will know nothing about. And so we pray for our world.
But is prayer all that God asks us to do? In Mark 4 there are a couple of parables about the Kingdom of God - it grows bit by bit, from small beginnings to something that will fill the whole earth. Evil will not overcome good - Jesus has already told us that. And the Kingdom of God grows as love forces out hatred, as light forces out darkness, as hope forces out hopelessness, as peace forces out anxiety...
Events in Syria slip in and out of our news, as does Iraq, Iran, North Korea... Some situations we never hear about. But across our planet there are aid organisations working on the ground to help the suffering. People that we will never know personally, stories that we will never hear, parents who will never cry on our shoulder, hugs we will never be able to give - but we can play our part through prayer and financial support as the Kingdom of God grows and God overcomes evil.
Occasionally events on the news 'put things into perspective'. By which we usually mean we see a little more clearly those things that are really important and those things that actually don't matter very much at all. Personally and practically I can't do much to help the victims of the explosions in Boston or Baghdad - but what can I do closer to home? How can God use me to extend his kingdom today? How can I make the world a better place for the people I come into contact with today?
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