Carrying the Weight of the World's News
Is the constant flood of wars, disasters, and bad news leaving you spiritually hollow before your feet even hit the floor? In this episode, discover how to stay informed without being consumed, and how to place the weight of the world into the hands of a God who is still on the throne.
Is the constant flood of wars, disasters, and bad news leaving you spiritually hollow before your feet even hit the floor? In this episode, discover how to stay informed without being consumed, and how to place the weight of the world into the hands of a God who is still on the throne.
Have you ever reached for your phone first thing in the morning and felt the weight of the world settle on your chest before you even got out of bed?
Wars. Shootings. Economic collapse. Natural disasters. Our phones deliver the pain of the entire planet in real time, every single day. And while God calls us to care about the world, the human heart was never designed to carry its full weight every hour of the day. Over time, that constant intake of tragedy doesn't just make you sad, it hollows you out spiritually, replacing peace with a low-grade despair that never fully lifts.
In this episode, we explore the story of Jason Woodruff, a Christian man who realized one morning that scrolling through the news had quietly shifted something inside him. It wasn't grief anymore. It wasn't anger. It was despair. So he built something about it, a Christian news organization called The Pour Over, designed to help believers stay informed without being spiritually destroyed by the process. Their tagline says it all: Peace isn't found in the headlines, it's found in Christ.
Through his story and the unshakeable promise of Psalm 46:1–2, you'll see that there's a critical difference between caring about the world and carrying the world. Only God can do the second one. And He's inviting you to set that weight down.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
- Why "doomscrolling" is quietly eroding your spiritual health and what it signals about the weight you're carrying
- How Psalm 46:1–2 anchors your heart in God's sovereignty when the headlines scream chaos
- A simple, practical change you can make this week to consume the news without being consumed by it
You don't have to carry the weight of the world today. That job is already taken by a God who is still on the throne.
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He was scrolling through the news one morning. It seemed
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like all he was reading about lately was war, economic
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collapse, and another mass shooting. And he realized
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something had shifted inside of him. It wasn't grief anymore. It
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was something different. Something that felt like despair.
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He was a Christian, and he believed God was sovereign. But
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his phone told him a story every single morning before his feet
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even hit the floor. So he did something about it. He built
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something for himself and eventually for hundreds of
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thousands of people who felt exactly the same come back to
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that story in just a moment. But first,
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welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger, and
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today we're talking about world news and how it's quietly
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affecting us more than we realize. We live in the age of
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information. We have unprecedented access to global
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suffering. Our phones constantly alert us to wars and natural
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disasters, economic crises, and a whole list of other
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potentially disturbing news. While God calls us to care, the
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human heart wasn't designed to bear the weight of the world's
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pain every hour of the day. The antidote might be to learn to
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intercede for the world while actively placing those huge
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global burdens into the hands of a sovereign God who's still on
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the throne. Psalm 46 verses 1 and 2 says,
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That psalm was written in a world that knew plenty of
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trouble. There were wars and invasions and natural disasters.
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None of that's new. But what is new is the speed and volume at
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which we absorb it all. In previous generations, you might
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hear about a faraway tragedy days or weeks later. Today, you
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watch it unfold in real time on your phone before breakfast. We
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wake up and we reach for the screen and within seconds, we're
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absorbing the pain of the entire planet. A war on one continent,
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a famine on the other, a shooting in our own country, and
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then there's political chaos, economic uncertainty. And we
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scroll and scroll, absorbing headline after headline, feeling
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the weight getting heavier with each swipe. Researchers have a
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name for it. It's called doom scrolling. It's the compulsive
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habit of consuming negative news and being unable to stop, even
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though it's making you feel And for Christians, it creates a
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unique spiritual tension. We feel like we should care, and we
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should be informed, and we should be And all of that's true,
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But there's a difference between caring about the world and
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carrying the world. Only God can carry the world. That was never
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your job. Psalm 46 says, God is our refuge, so we will not fear.
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The psalm acknowledges the earthquakes, and it acknowledges
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the mountains crumbling, It doesn't pretend the world is
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fine, but it anchors the believer's heart in something
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bigger than the headlines. It anchors us in the sovereign,
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unshakable presence of God. You can be informed without being
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consumed. You can grieve what's happening in the world without
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letting it swallow your soul. You can intercede for the
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nations without personally shouldering the weight of every
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tragedy. The key is where your heart lands after you read the
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news. Does it land in despair, or does it land in prayer? Does
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it land in panic, or does it land on the throne of God? If
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you find yourself anxious or overwhelmed by the news cycle,
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that should be telling you something. It means you've been
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carrying the weight that was never meant to be yours, and God
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is inviting you to set it down. So that man I mentioned, his
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name is Jason Woodruff, and in 2018 he founded a Christian news
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organization called The Poor Over. Their entire purpose is to
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help believers stay informed about the world without being
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spiritually hollowed out by the process. Every summary they
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write is paired with Scripture, a prayer prompt, and an eternal
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perspective. Their tagline says it all. Peace isn't found in the
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headlines. It's found in Christ. And God is still on the throne.
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The mountains may shake and the seas may roar, but he is our
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refuge, not the news feed. You don't have to carry the world
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today. That job is already taken. Maybe you need to hear that
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today. Maybe your mornings have been hijacked by the headlines,
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and your peace has been stolen before your feet ever hit the
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floor. Maybe you've confused being informed with being
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responsible for fixing everything you read about.
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Here's today's challenge. This week, make one change to how you
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consume the news. Maybe it means not checking the news until
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after you've spent time with God in the morning. Maybe it means
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setting a time limit on news apps. It might mean replacing
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one doom-scrolling session with prayer for the situation you
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just read about. And if you're interested in checking out the
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pour-over, I put the link in the show notes. And try this. Every
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time a headline activates your anxiety, practice this response.
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Lord, this burden is too heavy for me. But it's not too heavy
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for you. I place this in your hands. Because you're still on
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the throne. Lord, the world is full of pain. And our phones
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make sure we know about every bit of it. We confess that we've
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been carrying the weight you never asked us to carry. Teach
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us to care without being consumed by the world's news.
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Help us to intercede and leave the results to you. Remind us
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that you are our refuge and strength. That you are still on
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the throne. And that we don't have to fear when the mountains
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shake. We place the weight of the world's news in your
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sovereign hands today. In Jesus' name. Amen. If this podcast has
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been an encouragement to you, would you consider supporting it?
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Your generosity helps keep these daily devotions coming. You can
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give a one-time gift or you can become a monthly supporter at
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DailyDevotionsForBusyLives.com slash support. Thank you for
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partnering with me in this ministry. And thanks for joining
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me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, you don't have
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to carry the weight of the world today. That job was already
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taken by a God who's still on the throne. Come back next time
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for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.
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Until then, God bless and have a great day.
