Good News
Earlier this week I mentioned that I
was going to write my next blog about “How Safe the World really
is”. With that being said I would like to share some information
about our humanity that we struggle to escape from and that is the
attention we place on bad news. The media makes it's money, which by
the way isn't a bad thing, on selling advertising. The bad thing is
that we buy what they are selling. The best way to sell advertising
is to have lots of viewers and the best way to have lots of viewers
is to have content they will watch, hence BAD NEWS.
We frequently see headlines like “The
Storm of the Century” or “The Financial Collapse of the World”
or even better “The End is Near”. All of these headlines draw you
in much more so than the millions of great positive things happening
in our communities every day. As long as these negative headlines
sell we will not be exposed to good news. Now let's take a look at
free media for a moment. Scroll through your Facebook or Twitter
feeds and see what gets your attention. Sure you may stop and read
something funny but what we look for is the gossip or juice we missed
the hour before. Nothing better than finding some bad news that we
can freely share with others. All the sudden everyone is saying “Hey
did you hear about such and such”. Not only does the news media
love to promote negative news we as human may love it even more. Heck
you may even be one that loves to post negative bad news.
The problem with always thinking the
world is terrible is that it robs us of our joy. When we allow our
lives to be controlled to the point we start to believe that the
world is going to hell in a hand basket we no longer have the ability
to see the awesome beauty of God's creation that is all around us.
Stay with me for a few more minutes. I realize that this isn't
negative enough and it goes against the conditioning that are
inundated with but I believe I can make my point.
Without question there are terrible
things that happen in the world we inhabit and I will never make
light of that. When a horrific event occurs lives are impacted in
ways that are hard to imagine. In those incidents communities should
come together in love and heal what is broken. The human spirit has
an amazing ability to give us strength, love, and courage exactly
when we need it the most. We should not allow a media driven society
so focused on negatives to steal that from us.
Hopefully I have set the stage, now I
would like to add content, fact, and yes my thoughts and opinions. I
encourage everyone that takes the time to read this to do a fact
check instead of believing or not believing what I write. Did you
know that globally the world is safer now than it has been in
centuries? Did you know that war deaths are lower than they have been
in decades? Did you know that as a human species we are healthier now
than ever before in history? Did you know that world wide we are
better able to feed the poor than we ever have been?
Please understand, and I am not
faulting anyone, the media and us as humans tend to focus more on
singular events that we sensationalize more so than the collective
account of statistical facts. Before anyone goes crazy with negative
comments let me disclaim something. I am not implying that we should
minimize the bad things that happen in peoples lives, that is not the
basis of this blog. What I am trying to write about is the impact
negative news has on our lives and how much joy it takes away from
our us.
Looking back a few years here in
America at things that have gained headlines. Did you happen to read
the news feeds on social media during the Ebola out break? Everyone
was blaming the government and warning us that God was sending us a
message. Do me a favor and check the facts on Ebola. Yes it is a
horrible disease as is cancer, which by the way I am a stage four
survivor, however we lose more lives to the flu in one day than we
lost to Ebola in one year. Wonder why the news media sensationalized
it so much?
If you look at news and not facts you
would think our schools in America are not safe, when in fact they
are the safest place for our children. I also did a fact check on
police officer deaths and assaults and was surprised to find out that
it too is declining rapidly. We could go on and on about this but I
want to focus more on good news and the impact it would have on our
lives if we would spend as much time promoting it as we do promoting
the negative.
Life was meant to be enjoyed and to do
so we must allow peace, love, forgiveness, and fun back into our
daily routines. Bad things will always happen to us because we are
human. We are creatures that sin, we make mistakes, we take chances,
we fall, we stumble, BUT we also have the human characteristic that
gives us the ability to reach out and lift people up when they are
down. It is so important for our growth as a society to reward people
for taking risk, to reaching for new heights, trying the things that
we deem impossible. We should encourage people to step out of their
comfort zones because that is where great things happen. When we live
our lives in cocoons we will never be beautiful butterflies. God made
is to do great things and we should find every opportunity to do so.
Beings that I try not to get caught up
in too much doom and gloom I almost forgot this. I often tell people
that worry is a down payment on a problem that may never happen.
Since we are in election season you will hear everything under the
sun about how TERRIBLE things are, keeping in mind that is the only
way someone thinks they can get elected. You will have people, maybe
yourself included that will believe that in the event your candidate
does not get elected the world as we know it is coming to an end. Do
a fact check for me please, Read the propaganda from all elections as
far back as the 18th century, you will be amazed how much
the messages have not changed. News media, churches, and yes even us
tend to promote what MIGHT happen if such and such happens. Let's
stop living our lives with what might happen and simply go out and
live. Sometimes in our pursuit of happiness we must pause and just be
happy.
One last thing, and yes I saved the
best for last. I love God, I am a Christian and proud of it. I do not
preach THE END IS NEAR or Jesus is coming soon. Why? Because that
exact same message has been preached over and over for 2000 years. I
love to read end time prophecy from the first thousand years of
Christian history. Every generation has preached that the end is
near. Here is a wonderful fact that you do not even have to research
100% of the time they have been wrong. Now hear me clearly again, I
am not advocating going out and living a life as if our actions have
no consequences. Matter of fact I am advocating just going out and
living your life that God gave you in such a way that you can enjoy
every moment possible. We were giving this life as God's greatest
gift to us what we do with it is our gift back to God. I do not know
this factually but my heart and soul tells me that we were not put
here to be unhappy we were put here to enjoy that which we have been
entrusted.
Please do not get caught up in the
sensational news of the day as though it is a warning or message from
God. We as humans have always and will always find ways for love to
prevail over evil. I do believe in the power of prayer for wisdom and
I do love to read The Bible and other great works that promote the
power of positive thinking. We can either live or lives in fear by
listening to the major disconnect with the people in the pulpit with
the people in the pews. No longer should we accept being told to hate
others or that this group of people are going to hell. Personally I
think Jesus informs us that we ALL are sinners so if that is the fact
that I believe I will not spend my time informing you or others of
your sin. I will focus on making my life better so I can do more to
become a better person to my family, community, country, and yes the
world. Collectively I believe the power of living a life of joy can
do more for us than believing all the negative that is being spouted
every direction we turn.
While
it can be argued that blindly endowing trust on everyone might lead
to catastrophe, this exaggerated position is the result of a false
choice. Simply choosing to be more trusting doesn’t mean that
we no longer trust our intuition, not that we fail to do due
diligence. It merely means that those actions are done from a
place of hopefulness, rather than cynicism. And while the
larger filter may on occasion allow a committed deceiver to slip by
our radar, it also means it is far more likely we are attracting into
our lives those people and circumstances that will enable us to
create the lives of our dreams.
Now that I have spent enough time
writing I think I will go have some fun and enjoy this amazing finite
life in which I have. Along the way I hope and pray I encounter
someone that needs a smile or helping hand.
Peace be with you
Dale
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