Is It Good News or Bad News?

Hi. I’m Steve and I’m a news junkie!

I’ll admit it.

For many, many years, I enjoyed reading my morning newspaper. I would read it cover-to-cover and catch up on the events from around the world. Reading the paper was normally the first thing I had to do every day.

However, with the advent of the Internet, I no longer subscribe to a local newspaper (maybe an editor shouldn’t admit that!). Now, I get my news from online. I find myself reading MSNBC, Foxs News, CNN for my national and international news. I like to read AL.com to find out what is happening around Alabama, and in particular, around Birmingham. I read countless other Web sites each week, keeping up with the news, both the serious kind and the funny kind.

So much of what I read online breaks my heart. The news is just downright sad. Just this morning, I read the story of a teenager being shot and killed after egging a car. I read the story of a firefighting plane that crashed, killing three on board. I saw the story of a Jacksonville Jaguar football player who was shot outside an apartment complex.

News like that goes on and on.

So, why read it? Why keep up with what’s going on in the world, both near and far? Well, for me the answer is really simple. I don’t think God wants me to bury my head in the sand, pretending everything is fine, not keeping pace with what takes place in society. It was Billy Graham, perhaps the best evangelist since the Apostle Paul, who described his preaching as having a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I can envision that if Billy Graham were just starting out today, he’d edit that statement slightly by saying that he had a laptop in one hand and his Bible in the other.

To stay relevant with what is happening in the world, I read. I read books. I read magazines. I read blogs. I read online.

Do I get discouraged? Sure, all the time! But, if I stopped reading, I’d miss out on great stories like the waitress in Illinois that received a $1,000 tip for her service. I would miss out on how a balloonist survived a 9,000 foot fall in South Carolina. And, I would miss how the Jerry Lewis telethon raised over $65 million (a new record) for MDA research.

So, is the news pitcher half full or half empty? I guess it all depends on how you read the notches on the glass. Or in my case, the news on the screen.