Good News vs Bad News

The other day Shiela and I rented Kung Fu Panda. I'm a big Jack Black fan so I was excited to watch it even if it was a cartoon. The opening scene is the funniest I had seen in a while and I was laughing out loud. It was "pure awesomness!" if you know what I mean.

Anyways, in the movie there is this old, wise turtle and he said something I thought was probably very true but very hard to believe and actually live out. He said "There is no such thing as good or bad news. There is only news."

The more I thought about that the more I realized that it was true, but just really hard to accept. When something happens and we have to tell someone else, we almost always phrase it "I've got some good news!" or "I've got some bad news." The truth is that we don't really know what is good news or bad news...it's simply news. We don't know what the future holds and so how can we determine what is good or bad.

For example, if I were to win a trip to Vegas, I would instantly think that was good news. But maybe on that trip my flight ends up crashing and I'm paralyzed for life...I'd view that as bad news which only came about because of the "good" news. But maybe because I am now paralyzed I am able to spend a lot more time getting to know God better and sharing my story with others. Now that "bad" news isn't' so bad if it ended up turning into something that was really good.

I find it hard to look at life that way, although it is very true. We don't know the plans God has for us and sometimes what we view as "good" or "bad" is actually just the opposite in God's overall plan. Makes me sometimes wish I could see the future so I'd know how God will turn "bad" news into good...but then again, we wouldn't really need faith then, would we.