Central Lutheran Church - Elk River

#109 - What is Yours to Carry? {Reflections}

• Central Lutheran Church

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A scoop of creatine goes down the wrong pipe and suddenly there’s panic, coughing, and no air. That small scare becomes the clearest picture of modern life: we’re breathing in more tragedy than our souls can process. Violent headlines, viral clips, and hot takes pile up until anxiety becomes the soundtrack of the day. We don’t just hear about suffering anymore; we watch it in graphic detail, on demand, and often before we’ve even had coffee.

We talk candidly about tragedy overload and the illusion of being everywhere at once. Technology grants a kind of faux omniscience and faux omnipresence, tricking us into thinking every crisis is ours to carry. The result is predictable: dread, helplessness, and compassion fatigue. Instead of hardening our hearts or spiraling deeper, we name a better way to live with wisdom and care. We give permission to set boundaries, release what isn’t ours, and focus on meaningful action close to home. This is not apathy. It’s ordered love.

You’ll hear four simple, protective practices that make a real difference: unplug with intention, refuse graphic videos you can’t unsee, go outside and reset your body, and ask God to reveal what is actually yours to carry. From there, we move from global doomscrolling to local presence—serving neighbors, showing up for our communities, and trusting God with the rest. If the constant feed has left you tired and tight-chested, this conversation offers breathing room, grounded faith, and a path back to peace.

If this resonates, share it with a friend who needs lighter lungs today. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us one boundary you’ll set this week so others can learn from your practice.

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SPEAKER_00:

What is up everybody? Hey, this is Ryan and welcome to our Reflections podcast. And okay, I want to start this one by telling you a quick story that is kind of light and then get into something a bit more heavy. So uh buckle up. But you know, I take this supplement every day. It's called creatine and it's like a powder. And my son taught me how to do it a couple years ago. He calls it dry scooping. You take a scoop of it, it's like a dry powder, and you just dump it in your mouth, which sounds terrible. And then you drink a swig of water, and then it, you know, sort of mixes in your mouth, and you can swallow it. Well, it actually isn't as bad as you as I thought, but the first time I tried it, I put the dry powder in my mouth and then breathed in. And as you can imagine, the powder like coated the inside of something, my lungs or my throat. And I was like, ugh, and I it went down the wrong, the wrong pipe. And I was like choking and gasping for air. I couldn't breathe. And my kids were like, what are you doing? And I just couldn't breathe, I couldn't catch my breath. And it was like it was just all way too much going down the wrong hole. And I almost suffocated. I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes. But I I think about this often because I feel like that's kind of not to make it too much, but like I feel like this is kind of how we are today in our culture today. Uh, and here's what I mean. This is where I take a bit of a turn to more of a heavy uh bit here. But there's a guy named Alan Schlemann who wrote an article called Tragedy Overload. And he talks about in this article the amount of tragedy that you and I have ingested in the last just couple of weeks, um, depending on where you live, but also the amount of tragedy we have access to, like that we've had access to for the last many years. And it's just, it's all so much, like too much. And it's as though we're like breathing in stuff and just going down the wrong hole and we're choking and gasping for air, and we can't catch our breath because it's just all so much and too much. I mean, here in Minnesota, we had a tragic shooting at a at a school where two young children died. And then not long after that, we had the Charlie Kirk murder, which was more of a national uh sort of event. And then we had that same day, there was a shooting in in my home state of Colorado at Evergreen High School, the same day. And then a week earlier, there was the murder of the Ukrainian refugee uh Irina Zarutska, and there was graphic footage that was shown of her murder that we all probably had access to, many of you probably saw it, and it's like it's all so much, and it's like it's too much just going down the wrong tube. And and we seem to have witnessed all of it. Like we have either live folks saw it live, and the Charlie Kirk murder happened in front of, I don't know, thousand people or something like that. Or do you've seen video footage of it? You've had friends who've told you about it. And we have today in our culture, with because of technology, we have access to nearly everything. And so we don't just know information about things or events that happen halfway around the world that we have nothing to do with. We also, we don't just hear it, we also probably see it. There's video, and it gets passed around like instantly. And I'm sure you've noticed it becomes this extremely heavy, heavy burden. And Alan, in his in his article, Alan Schlemann, he argues that we humans are simply not able to deal with this. We don't have the bandwidth, he says, to know and to see and to carry all of this stuff. Because never before, think about it, never before in human history have we ever had access like this. You know, I never knew what happened over in Thailand on a Tuesday afternoon because it there was no way for me to know. And also it just wasn't mine to worry about. Well, now I do. Now I can see live video of, you know, some small remote village in Thailand and hear about what's happening there. And uh, or I can have a friend who's living in Portugal post something and I can know about it right away. But this is a brand new thing in the history of the human world and in existence, and maybe God did just didn't intend for us to be able to carry all of this stuff. And Schlemann says that technology has produced like this faux omniscience and faux omnipresence, that that we have this sense that we are everywhere and know everything. It's not real, though. It's like a faux or fake omniscience, a fake omnipresence. And it's actually hurting us more than helping us in any way. And the problem, as you can probably sense it, it and even as I'm talking, maybe you feel this sense of dread creeping up from down below. I don't know, but the problem is somewhere down in our souls, because our souls, which are gentle, fragile things, I feel like, they they just can't take it. And they can't take it all in, they can't process it, they don't know how to deal with all of it. And like back in the day, if you think about back in the day, even not that long ago, um, a few decades ago, we only really had to worry about our family, our closest friends, maybe our extended community or neighborhoods or city, maybe state, maybe a couple of significant events at the national level, maybe one or two worldwide events that we all saw in the news. But even a hundred years before that, we didn't even know things that were happening outside of our own little area. And now with social media, we can see everything and we witness it as though it's ours to deal with it, as though that village over in Thailand was my village, and those people were my people, and as though it's my burden to carry. But most of these events uh I can do nothing about. I literally can't do anything about them. And so what I end up instead, I feel helpless and scared, maybe anxious, maybe just this heavy sense of dread or uh depression, and it's all so much. That's too much because we are not God. Uh God alone really is the one that is able to see all of this and deal with it. He has the bandwidth. We don't. Our shoulders just are not broad enough, but God's God's are. Now, look, I love technology, but technology and information does have a price. We have to be honest about this. There's a give and take here, and this is the price of technology, of access. We know a lot of stuff that we have no business knowing, and we carry burdens that we have no business carrying. So, one, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a couple ways I think that can help us cope. But one, I just want you to hear me say there are many things that you are looking at, watching, hearing about that you have nothing to do with. They're not yours to carry, they're they're yours to let go and trust that God will take care of them, or that the the local officials in that small little area in Pennsylvania will handle that. Or the voters in, I don't know, Papua New Guinea, they'll they'll sort that out. But uh so I want you to hear me give you permission that there are things you just don't need to worry about. You don't have to have an opinion about them, you don't have to post about them. You can just go about your day and give those things to God. Okay, but here's some practical advice for how to how to handle all this. That's so much and too much and uh keep you from suffocating. Okay, number one is I would encourage you, and I've done this in person at Central many times, but unplug. Unplug. You have the controls in this. I know it's hard. I know we're all addicted to our phones and the social media, but I'm telling you, for your soul, protect your soul by unplugging from the news, turn off the news, especially if it's a far left or right kind of leaning news sort of echo chamber, just turn it off if it tends to lean towards the catastrophic, which most media outlets do. Uh, by the way, there's a difference between between media outlets and real news, but but unplug, turn it off, turn off the internet, turn off social media, unfollow certain people who only post provocative, clickbait, you know, insightful things. Just unfollow them. You don't have to make a big deal out of it. Um, also schedule times to not use it or to use it. Like, hey, I'm gonna use social media for half an hour right now, and don't do it before bed or right when you wake up. Okay, that's just my advice. Don't do it when you wake up first thing in the morning, when your brain and your soul have been at rest all night, and then just don't turn your phone on and read all the tragedies. And before bed, too, that can just mess with your sleep. So don't do that. So, and as you unplug from the news and internet and social media, you know, uh engage in some IRL activities. If you don't know what that means, that means in real life. This is the code word that the young people say. IRL in real life. Do things in real life. Gather with friends, throw a football, or play a game of clue, or Yahtzee, or whatever, or go bowling, or play pickleball. I don't care, but do something in real life. Okay, so number one, unplug. Uh number two, you know, if you can avoid those graphic videos, they're all over the internet. You can see the graphic videos. I'm not gonna say what they are, but many of them. Yeah, if you can avoid them, just uh you can't unsee them. So avoid those, protect your soul and just avoid those. So number three is uh go outside. This is kind of like unplug. Number one is unplug, two, avoid graphic videos. Three is get outside, go for a walk. You know, take your dog out there for a walk, go watch the birds and the trees, even if you don't like birds, I don't care. Go watch some birds. It's good for your soul. Go outside when it's raining, look at the rainbows, go snowshoeing this winter and uh get outside, get some oxygen, get some fresh air. And then number four is, and I mean this, ask God to show you what is yours to worry about. Like, should you really be worrying about a vote in Thailand that prohibits local vendors from using bananas in their street cuisine? I don't I don't know. Probably not. Let those local vendors in Thailand sort that out. So instead, ask God, okay, who what news should I be ingesting? You know, whose burden should I carry? Who's my family, my tribe, my village? Not that you shouldn't care about the global community or starving kids in Africa or, you know, the unrest in Sri Lanka or whatever. I'm just saying, like, what's really yours to carry and affect change and impact? And it probably is those local closest to you. And so uh ask God, what what should I care about, God? And where should my energy, my time, my attention go? So those are the things. So uh one, unplug from the news, internet, social media. Uh so unplug, get outside, do real activities. Uh avoid, number two, gra avoid graphic videos. Number three, get outside and go for walks, refresh your soul in the natural world. Number number four, ask God what and who is yours to worry about, uh, which is your circus, which is your monkeys, yeah, uh, and then let God show you. And uh, and then tomorrow morning, get up and do whatever it is that's yours to do. And let the rest go. Trust that God will take care of it. Trust that God won't hold you accountable for what happened in Thailand with those local banana vendors. It's not yours to worry about. So do what's yours to do tomorrow morning. Love God and love your neighbors and let God take care of the rest. Okay. And also, then may you be at peace in this time. All right, love you guys. Peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you can check us out online at clcelkriver.org. Peace.

Head Shot

Ryan Braley

Host