A Surprising Amount of GOOD News

An interesting thing happened on June 30th in Iraq - NOTHING.

Analysts and experts had been prophesying massive attacks surrounding the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi government. Oddly enough, there were no major attacks and the streets didn't run with blood. How strange!

It seems to me that the early transfer of power to the Iraqi government took alot of the wind out of the sails of the foreign terrorists on Iraqi soil. And everyone in the media (even Bill O'Reilly) seemed to think that it was an unwise move! However, in spite of the doom and gloom, I heard Brit Hume comment that the expected wave of violence never materialized. Perhaps the President is a little smarter than everyone seems to think? Hmmm?

The rest of the news that day was pretty good too. The economy seemed to be continuing its growth, unemployment continued its decline, Wall Street was happy, and things were generally going pretty well for President Bush. I like it when the news is like that.

I often suspect that what we get from the various news sources regardless of whether they lean left or right is the most negative spin on the news possible. I hear from military people all the time that we're not getting the whole story from Iraq. Well, if we're not getting it from there, it is likely that we're not getting it from any other place.

I wonder why that is. Are we humans THAT pessimistic as a species? Of course a good story always requires some sort of crisis, but the great stories always have a positive ending: Frodo destroys the ring, the Soviet Union collapses, Jesus raises Himself from the dead... So why is it that we so seldom get the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey puts it?

My guess is that it has alot to do with the spiritual condition of the people in control of the media. I have met very few people who would say that all they want is bad news. I can't enumerate the times that I have heard people rhetorically ask, "Why doesn't someone make a newspaper of good news?" While there is alot of bad news out there we often don't ever get to hear "the rest of the story."

Now many people don't want to believe that there is a devil out there, but according to the Bible that I read there is one and his personal mission is to steal, kill, or destroy anything that he can. This spirit moves the people under his sway to do his bidding often without their knowledge.

So what does all of this talk about devils have to do with good news and bad news? Well, the Bible also talks about three great gifts that God has given to each of us, namely, faith, hope, and love. It is God’s gift of hope that helps us to persevere in the face of bad news. It lets us know that He’s going to work it all out in the end in spite of how bad it looks now.

Remember, the devil wants to destroy anything that is good, thus, he influences those in control of the media to remove any chance that hope will be instilled in people by keeping good outcomes out of the headlines. If people lose hope, there is much collateral damage – faith falters and love grows cold.

It is hard to imagine a hopeful world, but I am convinced that one day – even with all of the gloom, sadness, and imperfection of this world – that we will see that God was indeed in control and that the end was worth it all.