Friday, March 14, 2008

Good News/Bad News

One of the most remarkable things about being a pastor is the constant interaction with so many other people's lives. When I first started, I had a hard time managing the sadness of hearing and seeing the pain in others. Life-threatening illness, death, divorce...there always seems to be at least one family or person in the midst of a heart breaking situation. They come to me. I pray with them. Sometimes I have Biblical advice they haven't thought of, but more often than not, all I can really do is listen.

It's easy to forget that there's always good news. There are weddings. New babies are born. Jobs are found. Of course, one reason I forget is people don't always come tell the pastor about the good news. But I think that it's easy to concentrate on the bad and neglect celebrating the good news.

And it seems that the more good news we have, the more we magnify the bad. This week I've read two articles decrying the tendency of the wealthy and the privileged youth both in America and abroad to focus on difficulty rather than blessing. Written by secular authors in secular publications, both found the irony that with so much wealth and prosperity, we can often still feel like we are owed more. It's like we're spoiled.

I think that the more we celebrate the good, the more we can weather the storms of the bad news when it comes. It's a healthier perspective. It's gratitude.