Mike and John were avid baseball fans. They loved it so much they became obsessed with the prospect of baseball in heaven. They made a pact that whoever died first would come back and let the other know the answer to that ever so important question. Years go by and eventually John passes away of a heart attack. Although saddened by his friend’s death, Mike couldn’t help but be excited about the prospect of finding out if there was indeed baseball in heaven. Sure enough, three days after John’s death, his spirit came and visited Mike one evening. Mike jumped up and asked ‘So tell me! Is there baseball in heaven?’
John replied, ‘Well, I have good news and bad news.’
‘Well tell me the good news first!’
‘Okay, the good news- there IS baseball in heaven!’
‘That’s great news! But what’s the bad news?’
‘Well,’ John said ‘The bad news is, you’re pitching tomorrow.’
The good news and the bad news. For every piece of good news, there’s a piece of bad news, and lately it seems like the ratio of good to bad news is a little disproportioned. On the negative side. Why does it seem like there is more to be disappointed about, more to be appalled at, more to worry about than ever before? Where is the good news? If it’s on TV, I’m watching the wrong channels. The media breeds fear. Fear of economic collapse. Fear of terrorists. Fear of disease. Fear of what my neighbors have in their basements. Fear of what my children will learn or experience in school. Fear is wrenching us everyday. Will it ever stop? Doesn’t it seem like the only news you hear about are the disasters, tragedies, or potential disasters and tragedies. They probably talk more about what MAY happen than what actually IS happening.
And it’s not just the news shows. Sitcoms are built around glorified dysfunctional families and life situations. Reality shows continue to showcase drama that at times makes me cringe. Bad news. What does our society value? From small scale celebrity gossip to national tragedies to worldwide wars and crises. I’m so tired of bad news. I’m so tired of everything on TV being trash. Every news story a reminder of the evil in the world that is out to destroy lives, families, peace, hope and freedoms. I’m tired of trying to figure out how any of this can be stopped.
Ha. Like it’s my job to do that. Like I have the power to do that. I know in my head that God has it under control, but it’s hard to live like it when you’re constantly being bombarded by all the problems in the world. It makes you wonder why God waits any longer- isn’t He tired of all this too?
Here’s the good news/bad news radar:
The good news: they started making Twinkies again!
The bad news: millions are dying of hunger and disease.
The good news: the Cubs won the World Series! (well... in 1908)
The bad news: major sporting events are also large sex trafficking centers.
The good news: we can afford to finish our basement!
The bad news: our neighbor keeps young girls tied up in his basement. Oh, and thousands of families don’t even have basements to finish, or homes for that matter because of floods and hurricanes and tsunamis and fires.
The good news: everyone in America can have healthcare!
The bad news: our country will never get out of debt, our economy will crash, and milk will cost $8 a gallon.
I know I’m being overdramatic and cynical, but most of these are real things. Don’t you wish you could smother the bad news with good news. Just act like everything is peachy? Sigh. But we can’t just ignore the bad news. Then we would be ignoring people.
Lately I’ve just felt very troubled and burdened for the world we live in. The fears we’re surrounded by. And I tried to find explanations, solutions, at least anyone else who felt the same way. I didn’t necessarily want the easy answer of ‘God is sovereign.’ But the more I thought about it and the more I wrestled with it, there was just nothing else that even remotely gave as much hope as that profound truth.
I relate to lyrics from Warren Barfield’s song ‘Take My Life’: “Lord without you nothing makes sense, down here the grass dies on both sides of the fence.”
Without God, nothing makes sense. But we have God! He is real! I needed to be reminded again and really just think long and hard about that for awhile. God is sovereign. God is love. God is working.
I shouldn’t be surprised at the evil in the world. We are sinful, evil people who live for ourselves and ‘desires of the flesh’ as Scripture puts it. The fact that there is ANY good in the world is proof that God is working. Every good thing comes from the Lord. (James 1:17) And on top of that, have I forgotten that evil may have dominion on Earth, but it has already been eternally defeated. As one author wrote- “God has already done something about evil- he sent Jesus.’
Death has no sting, hell has no victory. The evils and disappointments and fears of this world are so temporary. And even the evil that does happen, as Genesis 50 says, things men intend for evil, the Lord intends for good.
C.S Lewis says in The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” He says that the painful truth is that God is more interested in our holiness than in our happiness. He is more interested in our character than in our comfort.
The world was not supposed to be like this in the beginning. But we sinned. And we keep sinning. I am so thankful that God loved us enough to prepare a place for a us in Heaven. That he loves us enough to rescue us from this world. That he loves us enough to comfort us until we can go there. I’m ashamed I ever forget this, that I ever forget that the Creator of the world didn’t leave his creation to decay, but he brings life everyday. He brings hope and peace. He is making us holy. And maybe I just don’t look hard enough. I pray my eyes are opened to the good news. And that I don’t see the bad news as bad news, but as a place where God can show up. A place where we can get on our knees before Him. We need you, Jesus. We need You so bad.
Tim Keller writes, “If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can’t know.” He continues, “Why does God allow suffering? We look at the cross of Jesus and still do not know what the answer is- but we know now that the answer isn’t that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition.”
Add this to the good news/bad news radar:
The bad news: we are so flawed that Jesus HAD to die for us.
The good news: we are so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for us- even in the midst of evil and sin, we can be redeemed, a light in the darkness.
The bad news: there is a lot of pain and suffering and evil in this world.
The good news: God is sovereign, loving, and working, and this world is temporary.
