We have an email from Christina in Norman, Oklahoma today who asks, oh, this is a good

question.

In our overly digital and connected age, I often feel so overwhelmed with how much global

and local suffering I feel both a desire and a Christian obligation to stay informed

on pray for and be involved in sex trafficking, Syrian refugees, homeless people in my city,

the Black Lives and the Blue Lives Matter movements, abortion activism, suffering members

of my church, reaching the unreached and on and on it goes.

I want to pray, but I find it so overwhelming because the prayer list is so long and I want

to act, but I'm paralyzed by how much there is to do.

I truly believe this stems from a lack of deep heart conviction of God's sovereignty.

Could you maybe share how you stay balanced and aware in praying and acting for the pain

and suffering around the world and specifically how does your belief in God's sovereignty

and the midst of all this suffering affect the way you live and pray?

Would you say Pastor John to Christina?

Well, I'm not sure I can say how balanced I stay because I so totally resonate with this

sense of overload from the internet and from news venues about bad news.

I mean, I am more impressed with it now than ever.

I mean, I've always been impressed with how much sorrow and pain and bad news there is

in the world, but recently you go down the list of Google news on any topic and it's

really bleak.

So I get this, I really do and I have no idea whether I have become the balanced person

I need to be, but I can just point to how I fight the battle and here they are several

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