Once > Always

Happy Sunday,

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

Mark 1:35

When do you consume the news?
For probably two years, I consumed the news like I was breathing it—constantly, without thinking. I’d scroll headlines at stoplights, check news sites every time I opened or closed my laptop (maybe squeeze in a quick article if something seemed “big”), and listened to news-related podcasts in the car.

To be fair, that’s how modern news is designed to be consumed. I was just being a responsible, well-informed citizen.

I didn’t realize the cost of being hooked into the headlines until I took the IV drip out of my arm.

(Side bar: I pulled back from the news somewhere around 2018. Did you notice? Was there a shift in the force? I was pretty convinced I was somehow holding the world together by being always-in-the-know… and yet it seems to have kept spinning even without my hourly check-ins.)

I don’t actually care when you consume the news, but I highly recommend it not be “always.” Channel your inner 1960s, when the news started at 6:30 p.m. and—here’s the key—ended at 7:00 p.m. FWIW, I found my sweet spot for “when” is a couple of hours after I wake up; that way, the headlines are not setting the tone of my day but I feel caught up by the time I’m interacting with the outside world.

Here’s my challenge to you for the next week: consume your news for the day in a single, intentional, 5-15 minute session… then be done. Turn off breaking news updates. Get off TikTok. Turn off the cable news in the background. Find a different podcast while you’re doing yard work.

What do you think?
Jason

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