Is There Any Good News?

How often do we ask these days, “Has anyone seen my phone?” Oh, how we tend to misplace them in our homes. We go to reach for it, and it is not where we thought we left it. After a moment or two, panic can set in as we don’t know how to go about life without it right beside us. Usually, after a search, it is found. It may be found nn the couch cushion, on a counter, in the bathroom, and the list of possible locations is endless. But it all begins with a question. “Has anyone seen my phone?”

It just seems like more than not; I find myself asking another question regularly: “Has anyone seen or heard any good news?” Every day it seems that we are met with a tsunami of bad news in our world. Our local and world headlines read like a litany of bad news filled with tragic events, human suffering, sorrow and sadness, and lost hope. When you add to that your struggles, bad news events, and times of uncertainty, it leaves you wondering if there is any good news out there? You may feel like you can’t take any more bad news.

In the book of Proverbs, the writer states in Proverbs 15:30, “The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the body.”  Good news refreshes the body.  According to the writer of this scripture, good news can refresh our lives by renewing our hope and faith in God’s goodwill for the world.  God is a God of good news.  This good news is most clearly seen in God sending his only son, Jesus, into the world.  When Jesus stepped onto the human scene, he brought God’s good news with him and in him.  The Gospel of Mark begins its story of Jesus this way: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”(Mark 1:1) And when Jesus began his active ministry, he proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:14) Jesus was all about good news.  Good news which can transform individual lives and ultimately the entire world.  In a world filled with bad news, God stepped in and changed the world’s narrative.

Is there any good news out there?  Yes, there is.  The good news is anchored in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s response to the bad news headlines.  In Jesus, God infuses good news back into the world and into our lives.  We can now share in that good news in such a way that our lives are transformed and made new.  This good news refreshes, revives, rekindles, reshapes, renews, and remakes us.  Bad news will not be the final headline. Jesus is and always will be the story of the day.

Once we receive this good news and begin to follow Jesus, we must now live our lives in this new reality.  We are now called to be the “good news” in other people’s lives.  Our lives should be living reflections of the good news of Christ Jesus.  Our words and deeds should be reminders for all people to see that God’s good news is greater than any bad news they might find themselves in.  God can use us as instruments of his good news to bring hope into other people’s stories.  We cannot hoard the good news that God has shared with us, but we must live it out in our lives so that all people might read the headline of every day: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”  So, is there any good news?  Hopefully, the answer is yes as we become good news in Jesus Christ for all the world to see.