The Good Gospel: Understand The Greatest News You’ve Ever HeardChikamu

We Need Good News

The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. PROVERBS 15:30 

All too often we feel the buzz of a smartphone and see our news feed light up the screen—another shooting, another natural disaster, another crisis. We also see the lavish lifestyles of so many people on social media chasing another adventure, another lover, another outfit. Then we go to the coffee shops and sit with our friends. We use buzzwords like shame, trauma, and abuse. We self-medicate with sex, fame, and food. We look for rescuing from our books, our celebrities, and our vacations. The whirring chaos of false security and empty promises takes its toll, and we keep hitting refresh waiting for tweets and grams to tell us something good. We need something to cut through the noise, something to refresh the soul, something to bring hope to a world marked by despair. We need good news.

A Big Enough Gospel

Complain about Uber Eats forgetting your Mexican Coke or dressing on the side, and you know to brace yourself for the snarky “first world problems” rebuttal from a frenemy. While your missing tahini-garlic dressing should not register as a big problem on a human level, these interactions leave us wondering if our problems matter in the face of global epidemics we see on our news feeds. Does it matter that I am heartbroken about my singleness when babies go to bed hungry? Does it matter that I struggle with depression and anxiety when refugees wander this planet looking for a home? Does it matter that I am addicted to my smartphone when women and children endure sex trafficking in staggering numbers? What if God is compassionate and big enough to care for every person hurting? What if God’s gospel is big enough to comfort the lonely, set the captives free, minister to us in our despair, and mobilize a generation to push back against the evil we see in our world? Is the gospel big enough for all of this?

The Gospel Every Day

The gospel of God—the good news that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated by Jesus— means good news for the world. Rather than thinking of the gospel as a one-time event in the life of the believer, we recognize that the gospel is a worldwide proclamation that Jesus has come to deliver us from our sin, comfort us, strengthen us, and mobilize the cavalry to go into the world “gospel-ing” it through word and deed. The gospel bears witness that we live in a kingdom, we belong to a king, and we have faith, hope and love at our disposal for every moment—big or small.

Reflection:

How can the gospel—the good news of the kingdom of God—be a way for you to bring hope, joy, and peace in your own life and in the lives of others? Each day this week, you are invited to sit in the hope of God’s word, that we have good news that rejoices our hearts and refreshes our bones.