Good News

We love good news. When we hear that a friend got a promotion or a couple who have been praying for a baby gets pregnant, we get excited with them. We even get excited about a friend getting a new car (if we don't let envy take over) or hear about a new cure for a disease.

When there is a sale at the grocery store or the hardware store is giving away plastic buckets, we tell all of our friends about the good news. We love to share good news with people we know. Sometimes we are even bold enough to share good news with people that we have never met before.

Our Good News today is that Josh is doing really well. He has not had any fevers or nausea or any other major side effects and if all continues to go well, we hope to be discharged on Thursday or Friday to head home. He will have one more chemo treatment Thursday morning so we will find out after that. We are surrounded by sickness and death here ( we saw doctors doing CPR on a patient in the lobby yesterday) and at times it is hard to find something good to talk about.

Thismorning as I read my devotions it started with Colossians 1:16 and how "all things were created by Christ and for Christ. As I continued to read the context I realized what Paul was talking about is what we call perspective. The world looks at life from the perspective of what can be done to make us happier or safer or richer or ______ (you fill in the blank).

But none of those things last and none of them bring lasting peace and joy. But when we look at the world from a perspective of "all things were made for and by Christ" then our motivation to do things changes. When we hear about something that is too good to keep to ourselves, we love to share it.

That is the way it is when God gets a hold of our lives and begins to do His work in us, changing us into Christ Followers. In Colossians 1 we are told:

⁶ This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

Our lives begin to bear fruit and other people see that fruit and want to know more about Him because of what they see in us. As we live as Christ Followers the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Today our Good News is that Josh is feeling good and we are hoping to head home tomorrow. But the really good news is that we are God's Children and He is in control of our lives.

Thank you for your prayers.