The News is Awful But...

Every good and perfect gift is from God above. James 1:17

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past several weeks, you are undoubtedly aware that there is a lot of yuck filling the news.  When all the craziness from candidates to policemen to natural disasters and disrespect for life gets lumped together it can bring out the worst in us.  Everyone is entitled to their opinions but folks sometimes forget others might not share the same one yet they insist on loudly sharing those opinions with everyone and proclaiming their thoughts are correct, just, moral and supreme.  The result is a muddy mess that leaves me scratching my head wondering; why don’t folks remember everybody’s life matters and how in tarnation did things get so scrambled up.

I surely don’t understand all the messes we hear about in the news but there are a few truths I know.  First, God is bigger than ALL of it!  Second, I can’t fix it; God would never ask or expect me to and third there are two very powerful things that we can do RIGHT NOW that will matter.  These things will matter in my life, my family and with the people I am close to.  I can’t fix it but I sure shootin can make it better…and so can you.  The greatest part; these two things will tackle the feelings of frustration, dread, anxiety and the overwhelming desire we might have to throw something at the TV or computer screen when we watch the news.

There is a tiny back story to this idea and it came from the Holy Spirit because I would have never thought to do this myself. As I was sitting in prayer sad and frustrated about the current state of affairs of our nation I was prompted to go to something happy so I yanked an Advent book from my shelf.  Advent is such a time of joy and happy anticipation so I opened up the book and started soaking in the words and felt excited and happy; it was crazy!  After reading several pages two things became very clear and my heart filled with hope and faith.  Complaining, dwelling, commiserating and joining in on  face book rants about how this country is going to hell in a handbasket isn’t cutting it…that Advent book made that very clear!  We have to take part in the plan of God; and make no mistake, even in this mess, he has one…and judging by the magnitude of the mess I’m confident it’s gonna be a GOOD one for those who are faithful!

So, the first of those two things; be GRATEFUL!  Yup, you read that right, be GRATEFUL.  Think about it, gratefulness should be our response to the grace, mercy and blessings of God and no matter what you just watched on the 6 o’clock news, God has blessed YOU!  A grateful heart sees what’s good and appreciates it.   People who are grateful are merciful and kind because gratefulness causes us to be connected to the one who gave us the things we’re grateful for.  If we are connected to the giver of all good things, he gives more good things.  That connection leads to eternal life…that’s what we need to remember to focus on, not this short-term life we’re in the middle of right now.  This isn’t the good part…that’s comin and our salvation isn’t based on the behavior of the world; it’s based on our personal behavior. If we’re living gratefully we aren’t complaining, we aren’t worrying we’re busy praising and thanking the Father and that leads to great stuff!

The second of the two things; be LOVING!  If we are grateful, we realize all good things flow from love not hate, jealousy, greed or pride. When we’re loving, the atmosphere changes completely and God barges right in and brings those cool gifts of the Spirit…you remember those…joy, peace, kindness, goodness and gentleness!  No elected official or community leader is going to deliver those gifts if we cast our vote for them or hold up the right poster at a protest rally.  Those gifts come from only one place and there is no spot for those gifts in our life unless we are loving.  Too many of us are fumbling around in a fog of bitterness, anger, frustration with our hands thrown up in disbelief…that isn’t the proper disposition or frame of mind to be loving.  We need a new disposition; let’s try gratitude and love and see what gets better; I’m guessing everything will!

A Seed To Plant: Write down this quote and pray with it for a while and see how your heart changes. “Gratitude flows from the recognition that all that is good is born of a divine gift of love freely given to us so that we may offer thanks and share it with others.” (Author unknown but they must be a really smart, holy person!)

Blessings on your day!