How to Respond to Hot Topics

Honestly, even when culture is in a calm moment, no one expects it to last long. We all know just because some of the noise has died down doesn’t mean nothing is happening or worse, isn’t about to happen.

So let’s enjoy the mental break in those down moments for sure, but let’s also go ahead and put some healthy guidelines in place so we are ready when the next cultural hot topic happens.

Resist responding to everything

If a wise person takes a fool to court, there will be ranting and ridicule but no satisfaction. – Proverbs 29:9, NLT

I want to openly give you permission to not respond to every hot topic that pops up.

You are not designed to handle every single issue.

We have 24/7 access to everything that is happening throughout the world. That carries a lot of awesome advantages that haven’t existed in any other time period. It also carries a lot of pressure that hasn’t existed in any other time period.

Information Overload is a term used to describe the phenomenon of having so much information that you are unable to make a decision.

Information Overload is why one Friday morning I stood paralyzed in my closet for about ten minutes unable to decide what to wear. I had a ton of decisions I needed to make and I couldn’t process any of them because my brain was focused on all of them.

(BTW, that is a true story. The experience shook me to my core for about a week. And I still think about it.)

Resist the need to respond to everything. Find what you are passionate about and be about that thing.
You can still listen, empathize, and care about other issues, but don’t stress yourself out trying to come up with the perfect response to everything that is happening. You’ll run yourself ragged!

So again, here is your permission to not respond.

Research before responding

How much better to get wisdom than gold, and good judgment than silver! – Proverbs 16:16, NLT

If you decide the topic is something you want to respond to let me encourage you to pump the brakes a little. You don’t have to stop but slow down.

No cultural hot topic issues are as black and white as people want to claim they are. There is a lot of messy gray parts.

You need to take the time to do some research. (Reading what your uncle and college roommate wrote in Facebook posts that needed spell-checking is not research.)

Read both sides’ responses, because each side will claim they are right.

Recognize the middle-ground response

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud. – Proverbs 16:18-19, NLT

Once you have done some informed research then you are ready to start making a response.

As you make your response resist the urge to cling to one extreme or the other. 99.9% of the time the real “answer or solution” isn’t going to be found in the extremes. Instead, it will be found in the middle ground.

The middle ground isn’t comfortable or easy. It usually doesn’t have very many vocal participants, though I suspect most people fall in the middle ground. (Just look at a bell curve. Most people are in the middle and not at the ends.) And the middle ground requires more thought and explanation than a 280-character tweet can handle.

The best answer (because how often is there a truly “right” answer) is likely going to have some compromise.

Why should you be willing to compromise? Because 99.9% of the time if there is no compromise it just ends up rebounding in the other direction and creates the next hot topic to talk about.

Respond with truth & grace

Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. – Proverbs 16:24

Remember, we live in a world that is broken by sin. We will never ever ever solve all the problems.

More often than not, when we solve one problem it just creates another problem.

As you respond to a hot topic remember to respond with truth, but do so with the grace of Jesus.

As you respond to a hot topic remember to respond with grace, but do so with the truth of Jesus.

Remember it is a marathon & not a spring

Life is a marathon and not a sprint. So don’t burn out going full speed on this hot topic only to find yourself 1k into a 42k race. (That is .0158 miles into a 26.098-mile race for all my fellow Americans.)

What are your tips for responding to a cultural hot topic? Let me know in the comments!

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