How Can We Pray When Overwhelmed by Information?

In the warp-speed cycle of digital news, caring for our souls requires time in God's Word, time away from our devices, and a reminder that we're called to faithfulness, not success.  

In his book Every Moment Holy, Douglas Kaine McKelvey offers "A Liturgy For Those Flooded by Too Much Information."  

"We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord," he writes,  

"than we can rightly consider,  

of more suffering and scandal  

than we can respond to, of more  

hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice 

than we can engage with compassion.  

".... remind us that we are but small  

and finite creatures, never designed to carry  

the vast abstractions of great burdens, 

for our arms are too short and our strength  

is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and  

redemption, are your great labors.  

"…. Give us discernment, 

to know when to pray,  

when to speak out,  

when to act,  

and when to simply 

shut off our screens 

and our devices, 

and to sit quietly 

in your presence,  

casting the burdens of this world  

upon the strong shoulders of the one who  

alone 

is able to bear them up.  

Amen."