What the News Misses

Have you ever thought about how the news is kind of depressing?

I have. In fact I generally try to avoid the news for just that reason. I have enough challenges in my life without being given a dozen more reasons to feel anxious and depressed. But as much as I wish I could stick my head in the sand and ignore it all, the news keeps showing up anyways - in my Facebook feed, in the newspaper headlines, in conversions with friends.

Politics comes up a lot, especially with all of the happenings south of the boarder (and some of our own stuff too). I don't have a problem with politics per se, but it seems like it's just become a subject for everyone to get worked up about without actually contributing any practical involvement or solutions.

There has been a lot of death too. I don't know how many beloved celebrities died last year, but I know there were quite a few. I'm pretty clueless about celebrities in general (unless they're connected to Lord of the Rings or some other subject I particularly enjoy), but their deaths were all over the news and impacted many people. Just a couple of weeks ago I was saddened to hear that Stuart McLean passed away. We used to listen to the Vinyl Cafe in the car on the way to soccer every week. His stories were a piece of my childhood.

Since then I have been thinking a lot about how "the news" is so depressing. And it's not just large-scale news either. Even the local paper is full of shootings, unexpected deaths, the drug crisis, and other problems. Sometimes I feel like I should try to stay informed on what is going on in the world, but after just a few minutes I start feeling so gross. No wonder I try to avoid the news.

I've often wondered - where are the good things? There is more happening in the world than just disease, disaster, and death. Where is the hope?

But I do partly understand. Those things make for a good story. They are "big deals", things that affect lots of people, and I suppose they are important to know about. But the good things in life are often quieter and unassuming. The volunteer worker who makes a difference in people's lives. The neighbour who mows your lawn. Going out for coffee with a friend. Not exactly headline material. And that's okay. But the problem is that the bad stuff can overwhelm the good stuff.

We can only hold so much in our heads, so we tend to just think about what comes to mind the easiest. Because the bad stuff is so "loud", because it fills the headlines, because it's emotionally charged, that is what we remember. Everything that is wrong about the world blocks out everything that is right about the world.

And even more significantly, the news misses out the most important thing of all. It misses that God is with us. He is with us in this messy, broken, falling apart world. He is here, bringing hope, comfort, restoration, and a peace that passes understanding. But somehow we always forget. Perhaps that's because, while God can and sometimes does work in wonders, more often he works in the small, simple things, the things that are easy to miss if you're not watching for him.

And so we feel discouraged, we feel afraid, we want to give up hope, because the world just seems so dark and broken. But God is with us! The hard stuff is still hard, the sad stuff is still sad, but the good stuff is still good! When the news threatens to drag us down, let's remember the things that the news misses, and be a people of hope.