Bad News, Good News
By Grant Gaines
Without trying to sound cocky in the least bit, I believe I could do a lot of jobs really well. If you teach me how to drive a bus, I could be an excellent school bus driver. If you train me to fly a plane, I could be a great pilot. If you show me how to take orders, I could be a phenomenal waiter. And I’m not unreasonable enough to think that it’s because I have some special set of abilities that makes me any better than anyone else, I believe that you could do a lot of jobs really well given the proper training.
But there is one job that I know that I could not do—be a doctor. Sure, I could learn all the big words, train my hands to be precise with the knife, and write the prefix “Dr.” before all of my signatures, but there’s one part of the job that I could never handle—delivering bad news.
I honestly don’t think I have what it takes to walk into a room with a pair of teary-eyed parents to tell them that their son or daughter has cancer. I don’t know if I could bolster up the courage to walk out into a lobby to tell an anxiously awaiting family that I couldn’t save their baby. And I just don’t know if I have the mental fortitude to tell someone that they only have several weeks to live.
Maybe delivering bad news is something you learn in medical school or maybe it’s something that you learn with experience. Wherever you learn it, I know that “Bad News 101” is a class that I would fail time after time.
Does anyone else share in this sentiment? You, like me, do whatever you can to avoid being the bearer of bad news because bad news is so…bad. Ask a room full of people to deliver a piece of good news and everyone’s hand will shoot up like a proud flag on the Fourth of July, but ask someone to be the bearer of bad news? Crickets.
I believe this is how many of us view our task of sharing the Gospel. We feel like we are stepping on peoples’ toes and ruffling their feathers when we begin to tell them about Jesus. We view the Gospel as some sort of disservice to the person we are talking to—almost like we are trying to avoid spreading our germs to others when we are sick.
It’s one of the cruelest tricks Satan will use to paralyze us from sharing the Gospel. Satan has infiltrated our thoughts and reprogrammed our minds to the point that we now subconsciously believe that the Gospel is bad news, or at least that is how we behave.
But have you ever stopped and really thought about the Gospel’s message? It’s the promise of eternal life and true satisfaction. It’s a restored relationship with our Creator. It’s freedom from sins. And did I mention that it is totally free through the grace of our God (Ephesians 2:8-9)? That’s not bad news—in fact, the very word “Gospel” means “Good News”!
I pray for the day that we recognize that. I pray for the day that our eyes would be opened to the darkness of the world and hope of the Gospel. We’re not spraying people with pepper spray, we’re giving them what they’ve always been looking for—good news.
People want to hear good news. They need to hear good news. And they will turn over every rock in an attempt to find this sense of belonging, peace, and satisfaction. Some will go as far as literally putting poisonous chemicals in their bodies, trading their integrity and reputation for a cheap night of pleasure, or even changing their sexual orientation in an attempt to find what only Jesus Christ offers. Don’t you think they could use some Good News?
No one is going to slap you in the face because you gave them a bonus at work. No one is going to angrily glare at you because you put an extra cherry on top of their ice cream Sunday. And no one is going to ball up their fist in resentment because you tell them that shirt they bought is actually on 50% off clearance. No one doesn’t like good news.
Wouldn’t it be great if we realized that undisputable fact when it comes to the Gospel? The Gospel is not a message of condemnation but of reconciliation. It’s not a sentence of eternal death but a promise of eternal life. It’s not telling someone that they have cancer, it’s telling them that there is a cure for their cancer. It’s not being the bearer of bad news, it is in every sense of the word being a bearer of Good News.
Now that is some news worth sharing!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
