Faith column: Good news

Submitted
Dec 30, 2020  •  December 30, 2020  •  3 minute read
Prayer hands

Do you listen to the “news”?  We do, faithfully, at 8:00 AM on CBC radio, and then again at 6:00 PM on BBC television.  Most news items seem to be in the negative – which lures us to keep listening. Something in human nature thrives on listening to bad news. I’ve gotten so sick and tired of it that I’ve thought of refusing to listen to the news at all.  But my husband is very faithful about listening, and… it is a time when we sit close together on the sofa, so something keeps luring me on to keep an ear tuned to what’s wrong in the world!  One’s spirit can slump into melancholy.  Is there any hope left in the world?

Earlier this year we were in Ethiopia for 2.5 months.  While there, we lived in a little apartment where there was no access to the news.  No TV, no radio. And being older, rather out-dated folks ourselves, we didn’t even have a cell phone to plug into either.  So…we really did not listen to any world news for 10-11 weeks.  It was truly refreshing!  I came away from that experience with a sense of relief and found that the world had gone on without my hearing everything awful that happens.  It was very refreshing to be free of all the bad news and international gossip which creates most of our world news.

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But is there any good news in the world?  Can there be a cure for all the bad news?  What good news do you know about or share?  The Bible speaks about good news through various metaphors:

Bright eyes gladden the heart;

Good news puts fat on the bones.  (Proverbs 15:30)

Like cold water to a weary soul,

So is good news from a distant land.  (Proverbs 25:25)

Both Isaiah 40:9 and 52:7 speak of good tidings of peace being shouted from the mountain tops!  We could use some of that throughout the nations of the world today.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted

To proclaim liberty to captives

And freedom to prisoners.  (Isaiah 61:1)

Let us not be cowed by COVID, frustrated by international friction, or slink into a slough of despond.  My challenge to Grande Prairie is that we live as people of peace, heartily sharing the good news. Here are some ways that my husband and I have decided to live creatively and share joy and peace during this time of pandemic:

  1. We made a little poster board in our yard recently for the dozens of high schoolers who walk by our corner every morning in efforts to stem the tide of COVID in the school class-rooms. Today it reads, “A simple HELLO can lead to a million things.”  I could tell several stories of this past year when I, haltingly, greeted a stranger on our side-walk and that small kindness turned into a beautiful continuing connection.
  2. Greet passers-by when you’re walking on the sidewalk – or in the supermarket! Our society is losing its ability to speak with each other.  That may sound crazy, but if you would visit any country in Africa (where we have lived), you would quickly learn how sociable folks are.  It’s refreshing – in contrast to walking on the berm here in Grande Prairie where so many people turn their eyes the other way to avoid any greeting.
  3. Play some music out your front door. Someone walking past may be lifted in spirits.
  4. Think of something lovely to put in the mailboxes of your neighbors in the cul-de-sac or along your street – maybe a New Year’s blessing or quote of some kind.
  5. Phone one friend a day – or a neighbor you hardly ever see. You don’t have to talk long, but share one good quote from somewhere that means a lot to you.

Let us be creative and have fun offering gifts of “cold water” and “bright eyes” here in Grande Prairie.  The Spirit of God will lead and encourage us in emphasizing the good news.  Such practices will bring health to our bones and bless the world around us.

Lila Balisky, McLaurin Baptist Church