"...raise your voice for understanding..." Proverbs 2:3
This verse is the journalist's credo. To put it more succinctly, it means to me: Ask questions. We do it all the time. We're good at it. And when we do it well, we get great results: "The purpose in a man's mind is like deep water, but a man [or woman] of understanding will draw it out."(Proverbs 20:5) As a young reporter, I remember being afraid to raise my voice to ask questions at news conferences. I didn't want to sound dumb in front of my competitors. But I changed my mind and got some courage the day I saw a pro in action. At the time, I was a radio reporter covering the story of a young boy whose hand was severed in an accident, then reattached in a complicated medical procedure. During the presser with the doctors who performed the operation, I was impressed at how the news director of the local television station made no pretensions about what he knew. He prefaced his questions with such phrases as, "Help me understand this..." or "Here's what I don't understand..." He was clearly trying to learn. That was more than thirty years ago, and I've been fearlessly asking questions - and eliciting some great answers - ever since. But now let me ask you: Do you question yourself as aggressively as you question public officials? How much effort do you put into ferreting out the motives and contradictions of your own life? How often do you ask the Lord to show you how your ways conform to God's ways? And, when you learn that you don't measure up, then what? Now those are some things really worth trying to understand. ~ John DeDakis is a CNN Senior Copy Editor on "The Situation Room" anchored by Wolf Blitzer, and the author of the mystery/suspense novel FAST TRACK.   This article was first published in Oct. 2004 in the newsletter for Gegrapha, an organization serving Christians in journalism.