Anytime you want to get a Boda guy talking, ask (even if you don’t mean it) “but what’s wrong with this government? “ (Boda guys are public motorcycles common in Uganda) 

In this country, and I suppose in many poor countries, where leaders, systems and governance are still riddled with corruption, nepotism and poverty, such conversations are commonplace.

And from Boda riders to former classmates, to social media timelines, social-political analysis and commentary is always the staple. Media profit from it, entertainers ride on it, and so do advertisers. It ensnares our souls too. 

Yes, in my experience, I see how easy it is to constantly swim in the waters of what’s transpiring in Parliament or the latest government scandal, while unaware of the realities of God at work in the one I support, dislike — or look at every morning in my mirror. 

Click-driven newsmen would rather have us believe our lives depend on the next bulletin, as if more investigative series will oil our souls, no. 

They would rather have us believe that the next news event or pundit, is worth listening to, more than God’s Spirit at work in and around you. 

These newsmen (and I speak like a somewhat recovering newsman myself) would rather generate for you content that makes you think everything hangs on what happens with the top-of-the-hour headlines. 

Yet I’ve never ceased to wonder the amount of events that Jesus and the Apostles were exposed to in their Roman world, yet never ventured to prioritize. 

You begin to wonder how a former taxi collector like Mathew focused on the events of following Jesus, perhaps ignoring other multiple first century commentary on peripheral issues.

You wonder why John would conclude his gospel the way he did. “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  (John 20:30-1)

You begin to wonder how Paul resolved to know nothing else rather than Christ and him crucified in a world where panels and debate proceedings from Athens would have generated quite some insight. 

Of course there is much value in news, in understanding the times, yet there is a sickly obsession with dissecting angles to every latest event that withers the soul and defangs us of eternal perspective. 

Think of the book of Ezra, returning exiles understood the sovereignty of God in compelling a secular King, Cyrus, to cause their return, yet it’s quite instructive how much we learn about God in their exile accounts, more than we learn about their oppressor Cyrus’s governance, mandates or meanderings? 

Back to John, at the end of his gospel, he tells his audience that so many other signs were written about Jesus, but these were recorded so that we may believe (wait for it again) and by believing we may have life in his name. 

Life. 

In his name. 

Life- the end point of our attention, the very thing we don’t pick up from the rampant social and news analysis. John wants his audience to understand, you can get what you get from whatever you pay attention to, but paying attention to Jesus grants you, not merely awareness, curiosity, mental stimulation – but life. Life in his name.

Life, the very thing endless pundits and panels promise but fall short. So you either exchange your blood-bought attention for a life-giving person, or you  relegate yourself to the dungeon of the all-too-common paralyzing social-political analysis, 

The kind your next Boda guy, or bulletin, is  always eager to offer, but at what cost?