A Little Good News

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”  Matthew 5:6

I don’t know about you all, but I am so tired of hearing bad news.  It’s not just all the news about coronavirus that is broadcast 24 hours a day which scares folks half to death, but there is and has been plenty of other news lately to drive us crazy.  There is constant conflict in our government.  You never know who to believe or whether to believe any of those supposed experts, pundits, commentators, celebrities, or anyone else who gets his or her 15 minutes of fame.  We hear of horrible automobile accidents, road rage incidents, murders, and plenty of other situations that keep up us at night.  I think one of the most effective deterrents to a good night’s sleep is watching the news just before you go to bed.  It certainly can be depressing.

The Canadian singer, Anne Murray, recorded a song in the early 1980’s called “A Little Good News”.  The references in the song were based on the current events of that decade, but you could substitute things that are going on now, and the song is the same, a lament over the state of our world.  She goes on to sing about wishing for a lack of bad news, so lacking that the local newspaper could only print good news.  Unfortunately good news doesn’t sell newspapers or cause news broadcasts to get high ratings, but bad new certainly does.  It’s one thing to be informed about what’s going on, but we can become deeply disturbed if we spend too much time feeding on the worst of human behavior day in and day out.  Ms. Murray ends the song with this phrase, “We sure could use a little good news today.”  I agree.

In the last 37 years since this song was recorded in 1983, we have been through six presidents, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama, and Trump.  They all made promises that if they were elected, then things would get better, but judging from today’s headlines, things just continue to get worse.  Yes, there are pockets of good news, but they are usually only temporary.  Some politicians have made a statement about not letting a crisis go to waste, but I am pretty sure that they don’t mean for us to allow harmful or hurtful circumstances to bring us to repentance.  Rather, they see a crisis as something they can use to further their political agenda.  It just goes to prove that, while we need to elect leaders who will set a good example before the American people, politics is not the answer to our problems.  Only Jesus Christ can bring the good news that people seek.

I may not be able to do anything to change the course of the world, but I can allow the Holy Spirit to control me, to help me to do what I can to make a difference in the lives of those around me, and to give me a hope for the future.  Yes, the situation now is rather ominous, but Christ brings joy to my heart even in the midst of turmoil.  Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  Nothing takes God by surprise, and one day righteousness, minus all the evil and bad news, will rule.  Thus I, and all who follow Christ can be at peace because of God’s grace, and that is definitely good news.