When I was a young child, I loved musicals, including one called The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. At one point, the witch in The Wiz sang, “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news!” Lately, I’ve been in agreement with that one line. No bad news, please.
But my cell phone does not agree. For the little mobile buddy that accompanies me everywhere, there is no difference in the “ping” of a “good news” alert and a “bad news” alert. How I wish there were. It’s overwhelming.
[bctt tweet=”There’s no Easter without Good Friday.” username=”womenoftheelca”]
Over a couple of recent weeks, I took a break, distancing myself from much of it, dipping my toe into the chilly waters of social media and online news only for short forays, to confirm indeed, that the temperature had not changed. No swimming today!
Instead, I read Huffington Post‘s “Good News,” listened to music, and found online sites with stories of people making a difference in the world. For a week or two, it helped. But I couldn’t keep the ostrich act going.
God calls us to be in the world. I may want to have it all Easter, all resurrection, all butterflies and clear signs of hope, all the time, but there’s no Easter without Good Friday. When there are so many Good Fridays, I begin to focus too much on them, too much on the Friday, too much on the end, too much on the death. I forget that they are prefaced by that one word: Good.
A wise woman once told me this: Every challenge is an opportunity for growth. Perhaps someone else said it first. But I remember her saying it to me. It was a non-religious conversation, just one human being with challenges sharing encouragement with another human being with challenges.
Every challenge is an opportunity for growth. Sort of like saying that every Good Friday is an opportunity for Easter. Sort of like deciding that every time now I hear bad news, I’m going to try to look for, try to hope for the good. Even if it takes a while. Sunday is not that far away from Friday.
Liz Hunter is editor of Gather magazine. Read more of our blogs here.