Bad News, Good News

“How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.” -Ps. 128:1

Here it is, not even two weeks into the new school year, and already I’ve seen tears; and not from young kindergarten students on their first day away from home. These are moms, and probably there are some dads as well stifling the emotion welling up within them. The carefully nursed expectations of the new year are suddenly dashed as students come face to face with the brick walls of reality. School can be tough. Friendships fragile. Shortcomings revealed. And the grass on the other side of some imaginary fence all of a sudden is ablaze with a vibrant green.

For those with struggles straight out of the gate, I am moved with compassion. Hard starts are discouraging. But if the book of true confessions were written, there are plenty of doubts hanging out in everyone’s anxiety closet. Yes, every family in school, every parent, every student, every husband or wife has one. I have one. It is part of our nature to dwell on the dark side at times, and when we do we see nothing but warts and wrinkles, imperfections and weaknesses, mistakes and fears.

Is the future ahead one of promise or peril? Given our propensity for bad news, we generally fear the worst. The daily news seems to just reinforce our preconception of things sliding down a slippery slope into the abyss of no return. Just thinking about where we are headed can conjure up depressing images something akin to John’s Revelations. But how much of that is fed by a media cycle that feeds upon the bizarre and the sensational? And is there any good news?

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is. A Christian sociologist from the University of Connecticut, Bradley Wright, has come out with a book entitled, “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites …and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.” He has explored some modern, commonly held conceptions and found them to be more urban legend and myth than truth. Myth#1: Christians have a higher divorce rate than non-Christians. He did the research and found that evangelicals and those who have greater rates of church attendance are not as likely to go through divorce. Myth#2: Young evangelical youth are leaving the faith in droves. He compared youth of today with the youth of their grandparent’s era and found roughly the same trends. The young are always less religious than the old. In fact, church attendance in the 20th century was greater than in the 19th century. Myth #3: Abstinence programs don’t work. Prof. Wright found that there is a significant correlation between church attendance and abstinence among unmarried youth. Myth #4: There is more poverty and hunger today than ever before. Actual case is that hunger has decreased, but our immediate awareness of what does exist is up significantly. Myth #5: Totalitarianism is on the rise. Truth is that democracy has significantly increased over the past 50 years and is still growing. Besides the obvious tabloid journalism, Christians are partly to blame for our tendency to pick up the black flag of world demise and point to end times near at hand.

We have an enemy that loves to do the same within the looped memories of our minds. He loves to replay my failures and projected fears which are many. But Ps. 128 arrested my attention this week with its beautiful promises of blessing for those who fear him. My marriage and family are far from perfect, but I can unquestionably see how these promises have come to fruition in my life. All of a sudden I am looking at good news instead of bad. My wife has been a fruitful vine, my children like olive plants. I have eaten of the fruit of my hands, and I have lived to see my children’s children. The Lord has blessed from Zion in spite of tears, stumblings, mistakes, and numerable shortcomings. Perhaps we fail to see the prosperity of our Jerusalems because we fail to look for it. May we look for the good news and find cause to be grateful.

Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe