Fuel Your Spirit with the News

While waiting in the checkout line, I had a brief, yet significant, conversation with the man and the woman in the front of me, that helped me answer how news fuels our spirits. We were three strangers. I didn’t know them. They didn’t know each other. It was a five-minute exchange over the essence and quality of our news today.

I’m not sure how it began or what sparked it, but when the man said, “I only watch the good news,” to which the woman responded, “What’s that?” and I asked what channel he was using to hear such news, it all led to our bonding over the agreement that there is a need for a change in our news reporting.

In the past few months, we’ve seen an explosion of news. Some of it, helpful; and some of it, not at all helpful. You may not realize this, but this may be affecting your spirit. In fact, you may be feeding your spirit with some form of news. Good or bad.

How can you tell what type of news you’re feeding your spirit? Answer these questions:

• Are you saying negative things about people you’ve never met?

• Are you generalizing about the behavior of a group of people?

• Are you hating people based on their race, beliefs or something which makes them different from you?

If you find yourself answering yes to these questions, you may need to take a news break. No matter how informed you want to be, it may be turning you into someone you don’t want to be.

What was great about the checkout line conversation with strangers, is that It reminded me that I already know the good news. This good news tells me how to live in an upside-down world. It tells me who to trust. It tells me who loves me. It tells me the future. It tells me how to treat others. It tells me about life after death. It tells me how to live abundantly. It tells me the truth.

My good news is Jesus.