In 1930, the BBC, or British Broadcasting Corporation, was the backbone of the British wireless communication network to the public. Television had not yet been invented, but the BBC was deeply involved in radio broadcasting. Established in 1922, by 1930, the BBC had become the sole public broadcaster in the United Kingdom, operating under a public charter and funded by a license fee on all radio receivers.
The BBC produced a wide range of radio programs including news bulletins, music concerts, educational talks, drama performances, and even religious services. In 1930 they were hard at work improving the quality and reach of their transmissions, expanding their coverage across the United Kingdom as part of a broader effort to ensure that more people could access reliable and diverse radio content, which was especially important given the painful economic challenges of the Great Depression that had left people feeling disheartened and disconnected. As money was tight, the radio became the sole light of entertainment and information for most people.
In short, the BBC was the heartbeat of the UK information stream. Everything that was to be known and disseminated to the masses of British humanity traveled across their airwaves into the radios of citizens of the UK and beyond. So, on a Friday evening leading into the Easter weekend, families across the country finished their suppers, settled in around the living room radio set and waited for the familiar voice of the BBC announcer to reveal to them the news of the day.
However, the fifteen-minute news report on April 18, 1930 ended up being only three sentences. “Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news.”
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
This is the fourth in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul. The soul is that part of you that is eternal. After death, after life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity. If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.
“There is no news.” After that simple pronouncement, the BBC filled the rest of the fifteen minutes with light piano music.
Jump forward to 2024 and we find a very different story making the headlines. Every day, across the world, things make the news. The number of news stories published each day in 2024 varies significantly among different news outlets, but all of them are significantly higher than the number zero. For instance, The Washington Post publishes around 500 news posts daily. The Wall Street Journal puts out about 240 articles per day, while The New York Times publishes about 230 news articles during a 24 hour news cycle. In the UK, Mail Online, known for its widespread use of clickbait headlines, is one of the most prolific publishers, averaging 1,490 stories on weekdays.
We’ve come a long way from the “no news” declaration of April 18th, 1930. With the advent of the internet, digital media, and ad-supported news websites, the news has skyrocketed… but is it really improving our lives?
To give you context to the volume of news you are now provided, a major newspaper can generate anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 words a day. To provide a sense of scale to compare that to: a typical novel might be around 80 to 100,000 words. Thus, the daily output of a single large newspaper could be equivalent to writing several novels PER DAY. On a larger scale, if you consider multiple major news organizations globally, the daily production of news could equate to hundreds of novels’ worth of text. You literally cannot read the news fast enough.
So, what does this have to do with the soul and what does it have to do with love? If we are going to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our souls, we need to know how our souls work, and how to keep them healthy and strong… and a common theme found throughout the Bible is the silence of the soul. Throughout the Psalms this idea is illustrated:
Twice in Psalm 62, David describes the need for his soul to wait in silence.
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah (Psalm 62:1-8 ESV)
Silence is connected with peace, refuge, rest, and an unshakeable faith. It is as if David is saying that when he tuned out the noise, focused on God and lowered the volume of the distractions, his enemies no longer scared him and the uncertainty of life was less anxious because he could simply take refuge in waiting for God. Silence helped him clarify his place in the cosmos.
Or even more powerfully, Psalm 131, which is only three verses long says:
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:1-3)
David compares his soul, to a child, easily distracted, easily upset, and in need of soothing. When the world gets too big for a child, what do they do? They quietly slip their hand into their mother’s and hold on tightly. You will often see children physically attempt to silence the world around them by shutting their eyes and burrowing their heads into a parent’s leg or lap when they are fearful.
Whether we like it or not, our souls are not that different than weaned children. Big enough to feel independent, but still small enough to need refuge from the noise and the big bad world out there. And just like those children, we must learn to cope with our smallness in a chaotic and vast world. We must learn how to quiet our souls and calm ourselves.
Whether you call them ‘coping mechanisms’, ‘stress management techniques’, or ‘emotional regulation strategies’ – they all come down to the same idea. Learning to address the uncertainty of this world and the energy-draining tendencies of living in it. If you don’t figure out how to turn the volume down, you will be plagued with the effects of what David calls, “occupying yourself with things too great and marvelous for you.”
When the world gets too big, our stress level goes up and that impacts us in a variety of ways. From difficulty in our relationships, to health problems, to decreased resilience – if we can’t quiet our souls our families suffer, our bodies suffer, and we simply don’t bounce back from adversity properly. And since we don’t recover from challenging circumstances well, the stress has a compounding effect as each trial, test, worry, and challenge piles on creating an ever-growing argument that there is no hope, only darkness ahead.
If you have ever felt overwhelmed, you know exactly what I am talking about. Fight and flight both kick in at the same time, emotions slam back and forth from frustration to guilt to fear to hopelessness, and your ability to focus disappears as your mind feels scattered. Your marriage, your family, and your relationship with God take the biggest hit during these times.
So, what is the solution? How do we quiet our souls in a world that can be so loud?
#1 Learn from David. Find rest and distance where you can.
In Psalm 55, David describes a time when he was overwhelmed by problems and enemies. Here is what he says:
Psalm 55:4 My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. 5 Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. 6 And I say, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; 7 yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah 8 I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest."
David knew what he needed – the ability to rest and put some distance between him and the problems. There are times that isn’t possible (in fact, I think that is part of why David is struggling at the time was because it wasn’t possible for him), but even a little distance and rest can go a long way. This isn’t avoidance, it is perspective. David compares it to a storm. Seeking shelter is healthy during a tempest. We need to do a better job of stepping away from problems long enough to figure out how to deal with them in a healthy way. Quiet your soul by taking a few minutes to pray in the other room before disciplining your child. Calm your soul by agreeing to talk with your spouse later that evening after a pre-determined time to let you both cool down when you see the situation escalating to an unhealthy level. Catch some sleep before tackling that project that is overwhelming you. Studies show that even a ten-minute nap can provide benefits to productivity, mood, and stress reduction.
Stepping back is often a great tool to make you a better person, parent, spouse, and teammate. Overwhelmed souls need distance. Find a way to create some space for that.
#2 Find faithful comforters you can confide in
In the church at Corinth, there was a man that had sinned and persisted in that sin to the point in which the church was commanded to publicly rebuke him and withdraw their fellowship from him. You can read about the details of that situation in 1 Corinthians 5. However, by the time Paul wrote his second letter to the church in Corinth, the man had repented… but the church had been hesitant to accept him back. Paul’s response to this distancing of the brethren is found in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8
2 Corinthians 2:6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
Paul understood that once the man recognized the sin he had entangled himself in, he needed comfort, forgiveness, and a reminder that he was loved. If the church kept their distance, this man would quickly be overwhelmed and his soul would be in danger of giving up entirely.
We need people in our lives to lean on when we are overwhelmed. Good voices, faithful voices, that will speak calmly, quietly, and reassuringly can quiet our souls. When we feel like everything is bad news, an older, stable Christian that can remind us that our troubles are normal and “this too shall pass” is exactly what the Great Physician ordered. Overwhelmed is a very close cousin to the feeling of being alone. When you know you are loved, that hard days happen to everyone, and that you will still be accepted even if you completely fell on your face is important. You don’t have to confide in everyone, but everyone needs to confide in someone. Find yourself some faithful comforters and then use them.
Which leads me to #3 – Pray without distraction until you know what your job is.
Let’s return to Psalm 131, that short three verse Psalm, where David talks about calming and quieting his soul. How does that Psalm begin?
“O Lord”
This psalm is a prayer, not just a song. And the next thing David says is “my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high, I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”
David is praying for the strength to stop being distracted by things that are beyond his control and his position. God sits on high, not us. A quiet soul doesn’t think too highly of itself. Overwhelmed is often a weird attack of ego. We have decided that everything is our responsibly and since we can’t handle everything we are overcome with anxiety, fear, and frustration… but that’s wrong. There is very little you are responsible for, so pray for perspective, and then don’t step back into the big bad world until you know your place in it.
Remember that time your child behaved so horridly that you began the tailspin of thinking that you were a horrible parent, and they were going to grow up selfish, lazy, and totally immoral? Yeah, they were just a tired two year old and needed a nap. A few moments of prayer can remind you that your job is to address that tantrum, not blow it into a referendum on their entire life trajectory.
Psalm 131 reminds us to not let our eyes linger too far forward in the timeline and not to occupy our minds with problems too big for us to solve. It is exactly as Jesus taught, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
The big things aren’t our problems, the little things are. Start small and quiet your soul.
These three things:
#1 Learn from David. Find rest and distance where you can.
#2 Find faithful comforters you can confide in
#3 Pray without distraction until you know what your job is.
Will help you to learn to love better because a quiet soul can love the person right in front of them instead of worrying about all the news they cannot change. After all, April 18, 1930 goes down in history as a good day, the day there was “no news to report”
A quiet news day is a good news day.
Learn to love better. Learn to quiet your soul.
If you are a regular listener, thank you for your patience during my radio silence these last two weeks. Between traveling to Harrisburg, PA to be with the Capital City Christians to a couple of difficult funerals for our family here at Eastland, the podcast needed to take a backseat for a minute.
The good news is that both the funerals were for Christians and I hope to see them again someday. It is true what Paul said, “we grieve, but not as those who have no hope.”
Thank you for listening, and if you have a chance to subscribe or review the podcast, I’m always grateful. If I can help you with anything you can email me your questions and requests to scott@biblegrad.com and if you are in the Louisville, KY area, I would love to see you this Sunday at the Eastland church. If you want more information about the work I'm doing at Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org or my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.
And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
