When Bad News Breaks… Let the Good News Rise

This week, our nation was rocked once again by disturbing headlines. But it’s not the bad news I want to focus on—it’s our response to it.

Bad news isn’t new.
It’s been with us since the beginning—since the Garden.
To romanticize the past as “better times” is to deny the truth: it’s always been broken. But to believe that it was better is also to abdicate our present responsibility—to be salt and light today.

Jesus didn’t speak about salt and light as metaphors for comfort or passivity. He spoke to a generation that knew salt was a preserver—something that held back decay. They knew light was the only thing powerful enough to break darkness.

And now—so do we.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, you’ve been given a download straight from heaven into the operating system of your life:
The Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit who:

• Raised Christ from the grave,

• Turned water into wine,

• Opened the eyes of the blind,

• Broke chains that had bound generations—
  That Spirit now lives in you.

Not because you earned it.
Not because you performed well.
But because, at the foot of the cross, you laid down your filthy rags and in return, the King of Kings offered you a crown and access to the throne of grace—the same throne that makes the angels cry, “Holy!”

So let me be direct:
If the news of this week hasn’t stirred you to love deeper, pray harder, or search the Scriptures more intensely, then I question the root of your faith.
Because true followers of Jesus don’t run toward despair—they run toward the throne.
Bad news should compel good news to flow out of you.

We don’t retreat into silence. We don’t drown in the chaos.
We shine.
Because the light shines brightest in darkness.

So take off the shade.
Let your light shine before men.
And let the bad news be the catalyst that propels you into bold, Spirit-led action.

Pray in private.
Act in public.
Love those near you.
And remember: this isn’t a performance. It’s a response to grace.

If the Body of Christ would rise as ONE—just to pray—we would see the hand of God move like never before.

Everything else?

Wasted effort.

In Jesus’ name.