Rants and Raves

I feel as if CNN has turned into "America's Most Shocking Videos" or YouTube, rather than a news program reporting the most IMPORTANT news of the day. You know, the war? International suffering. Political news. Things of that nature.

I am so tired of viewing one disturbing video after another: beatings. car accidents. car chases. anything involving a celebrity.

Just because video is available doesn't automatically make it nationally newsworthy.

And how must those affected by this footage feel? How would I feel if someone I love was killed in a car accident and CNN showed live footage of the wreckage, for the whole world to rubberneck?

When did one person's sorrow and tragedy become another's entertainment? I guess it's always been this way. We visited Rome on our honeymoon and I've never been anywhere that made me as sad as the Coliseum.

But back to my rant about television news.

The final straw was the coverage of the Virginia Tech shooter - particularly his hateful video. As if this image could possibly be beneficial to a nation in mourning. I thought about the mothers grieving the loss of their precious babies. And I thought about the shooter's mother, too. I wonder if this troubled soul was as precious to her as my Nicknack is to me. Airing this video was tactless, macabre, and wrong.

There just seems to be no dignity left in the world. No sense of shame. No new low that can't be reached.

My consolation is that God sees and hears all. He knows how much the darkness of the world hurts and scares us. He mourns with us. He hears our cries for those who suffer. More importantly, he hears their cries. He knows them intimately, and cares deeply for them.

My consolation is that God is lightness, with no darkness. Not even a little tiny bit.

My consolation is that this world is not my home.

I don't know how a person who doesn't know our God can deal with the darkness of the world. Or the darkness in their own heart. Or the darkness brought into their very own living room every morning, through their television.

The darkness would chew me up and spit me out, if it wasn't for Him. I mean, I think I would literally need to be institutionalized. Thank you God for being my Comfort, my Shelter, my Tower of Refuge and Strength. My Rock. My Light. My Home.