Wildfires of Goodness

There are a lot of stories out there about death and tragedy. Horrific, terrible, appalling stories. Loved ones lost, People gone missing, masses murdered, wildfires, scary dark coincidences, those stories that make your skin crawl and your blood chill. The ones that seem to stop your world for a while and dampen the good things, the ones that make even a secure life seem possibly bleak.

Yes, there are scary things in the world. Countless scary things. Told and untold. But time exists in this world for a reason. When those things pass, they are gone. Moments are constantly filtering in and out. And for each of the bad, there are a thousand good things.

Someone may have lost their life today, but millions of others just got theirs back, healed from a chronic disease, were born, or given hope with good news. Billions of good things… no, trillions of good things happen every minute. 

One 5-minute story from 7 years ago seems to somehow change our entire perspective and question the safety of the world. But that isn’t necessary. Of course there is bad news everywhere, we live in a fallen world, tainted by sin. But God came, in grace, in restoration, and in glory to heal, protect, and fix what isn’t right. This world isn’t all we have. This world isn’t the extent of our being or existence. There is life beyond the pain and suffering and hardship and the bleak, gloomy, bad, confusing, wrong days. 

Christ faced a brutal death, which he had to anticipate since the day of his birth, yet he brought great sanctification and glory and goodness from his sacrifice. End isn’t always an end, sometimes it is a beginning. And if not, then there is tomorrow, and there is good, and there is God. 

The world will always have bad news to tell, but we don’t have to stop at the bad news, we don’t have to give the scary tales the spotlight or the end-say. What about the baby who was born today, who might not have been? What about the grandma who healed perfectly from surgery? The mother who just had her first child, or the great-grandparent who got to witness their great-grandchild get married? What about everyone who celebrated a new success, or a healing or a renewed hope in their life?! Don’t their stories have credibility too? The world doesn’t stop at the bad stories. Life doesn’t stop at the pain and the suffering and the unknown. Evil isn’t the end of this world. If you skip to the end of the story, it’s God who gets the last say.

We have a God who is all-knowing, all-healing, and all-restoring. Adrenaline pumping fear through your veins doesn’t stop the almighty or freeze him in his tracks. Nothing is unexpected to him. Nothing is. Nothing is secret to him. Nothing is. He hates the bad things that happen, too. But that’s why he creates so much good. He recruits his good people to fight against all that bad; to hold up a beacon of hope to our falling, broken, crumbling world and declare, “This isn’t it! This isn’t our end! This isn’t the extent of us! This is not too big for our God”!

That is why ministry is so important and necessary; without hope being poured into you, filling up your heart and soul with true restoration, those stories have more of a chance to shake you. If you are overflowing with God’s mercy and love and goodness, there will be no room, no place for satan’s mentos to shake up your mind and your heart.

Believe in the good. The good is equally as credible, …and much more frequent than the bad. Look at the good in your life today, log it. Every little tiny good thing, store it in your heart so you can use it to battle those pesky sad things. I guarantee you the good will amount to much more than and far outweigh the bad. Even on the news, there is plenty of good to be told: “3 mothers chose life!” “A child was adopted into a good, loving home!” “People are standing up for good causes and not giving up hope! Stand strong!”

There is so much good to be told. Spread that. Spread the good, like all those wildfires trying to burn the hope and positivity from everyone’s world. Because, if good was a wildfire, everything would be ashes- there is so, so much good that it doesn’t even take looking for; it’s just there. Everywhere. In all the little things, all the big things, and all the stepping stones along the way. 

Enjoy today and store up every joy in your heart. Remember it and give it the spotlight it deserves. Acknowledge it, smile about it, and allow someone else to smile about it too. 😊