The fourth guy

I love the story of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego. You can look it up in the Old Testament book of Daniel, Chapter 3. I’ll give you the condensed version right here.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was a fairly vain fellow who ordered construction of a 90-foot-high statue of himself in gold, and he decreed that people should worship the statue. Anyone who refused would be tossed into a furnace.

Well, this did not go over well with Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, who were followers of the One True God, and so they declined the king’s invitation. 

The king was not used to people disobeying his decrees, and so he had the three men rounded up and brought before him. He gave them one last chance, but they were not buying it.

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter,” they said. It’s not clear if one of them was the spokesman or if they all gave this answer in kind, but they put it pretty plainly: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

I love that: God is perfectly able to save us, and we’re sure he will do so, but even if he doesn’t, we serve him, not you or your silly gold statue.

And so Nebuchadnezzar had them tied up and tossed into the furnace.

And boy howdy, was the king surprised at what happened next.

“I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods,” said the king, somewhat nonplussed. A lot of scholars will tell you this is an Old Testament sighting of Jesus. In any case, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the furnace without any burns or other damage, and Nebuchadnezzar admitted they served the One True God.

I love the story of those three guys. Most of all, I believe in the power of that fourth guy.

The venerable 5 Ws

I spent 50 years writing and editing news stories every day — and the first 22 reading them out loud several times a day. Besides what I learned from colleagues and on the job, my entire journalism education was a one-semester class my senior year in high school, and that turned out to be all I needed for a successful career. I said that out loud to two of my most cherished colleagues one day — both J-school grads — and it was one of my more embarrassing moments.

Still, if you adhere to the venerable 5 Ws, you can do the journalism thing acceptably. As soon as possible once you’ve started writing, you need to explain the Who, What, When, Where and Why something happened or is about to happen. I can’t tell you how many times we threw up our proverbial hands in frustration over a press release that omitted the answer to one or more of these key questions.

And so, whenever I am asked about writing a good news release, I say: Tell us what’s going to happen, when and where (exact time and date with the address of the venue, please), who is involved, and why you’re all doing this. If those five elements are there in any kind of order, the report is a success.

For example: A book fair (what) to benefit Hometown Area Public Library (why) is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 30 (when), in the commons at the Hometown Area High School, 321 S. Main St., Hometown (where). The annual book fair is hosted by Friends of the Hometown Area Public Library (who).

The same principle applies to the average news story, or as I like to refer when talking about certain outlets, clickbait. You want to know who, what, when, where and why, and if one or more of those elements is missing, you will click on the story in hopes of finding out. One especially annoying kind of social media headline says something like “A community mourns (who) the death of a mother and six children (what) after a terrible incident last night (when),” and when you click on the story, you discover this happened in Timbuktu, South Carolina (where), thousands of miles away. When a local news outlet reports the news, you expect it to be local news, but that’s not strong enough clickbait sometimes.

Still, when you see that one of those five vital elements was missing, you get a frustrating sense that maybe your time and attention was wasted. And now you know how editors feel when you forget to answer all five questions in your news release.

Stop scrolling

It’s so easy to fall into the trap. I saw another absurd political meme and was already composing a response to the absurdity in my mind, but just in time I reminded myself I do not wake up in the morning to argue about politics, nor did I log into Facebook to spend the day tilting against absurd windmills.

But here I am spending a significant amount of time scrolling through nonsense that adds nothing to my day. I sometimes wonder if I am psychologically able to keep my “smart” phone in my pocket for a full day.

We engage with the screen instead of with the world around us. The world is silently shouting “Pay attention! See the world! Interact!” while we scroll through what? Do you remember half of what the screen showed you this morning? or 5 minutes ago? That wise saying you laughed at or nodded in agreement — what was it again? Why did you laugh? Wake up, Warren! There’s a life to be led, tasks to accomplish, needs to fill, weight to shed, dogs to steward — see to your life, work for your purpose, seize the day.

The high-tech tools created to teach us and draw us together are being abused to tear us apart and drive us into ignorance and misunderstanding. 

Do I have the guts to stand up and cry, “No! I will love my neighbors! I will treat my supposed enemies with kindness!”?

Some will say, “How can you turn your eyes and speak of love when so much wrong is happening hither and yon?” That is precisely when we need not to just speak of love but to engage with the world in a spirit of love.

And so I resisted the urge and scrolled past the absurd meme after lingering over it for a few moments, but more and more I understand that the real solution is not to scroll past the absurdities but to stop scrolling altogether.