Good Tidings – Sunday, August 29, 1982
“How beautiful upon the mountains, ” wrote Isaiah, “How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good.”
There is a lot of good in the world. And yet, there seems to be relatively few bearers of “good tidings.” Much more popular are the bearers of gloom, people prepared to tell us how bad things are and how much worse they are going to get.
Well, the world can be a difficult place at times. But in a difficult world, we have all the greater need for a vision that can reveal the world to us as the world will someday be.
For that reason, pessimism is a great mistake. Pessimists are forever deceived by the illusions of the moment, forever trying to force life into a static, one-dimensional prophecy of failure and defeat. On the other hand, faith, hope, and love—all the positive emotions spring from an optimistic view of life, a willingness to extend ourselves. In our believing and our loving, we reach out to God and to one another. We give of ourselves, hoping that others will give back. And more often than not, we find that they do.
Surely there are failures in life, times when even our most earnest effort finds only conflict. But in spite of the conflict there is much success of all the marriages that fail, for instance, many do work. In spite of all those who deny God, many call Him Father. Wherever we look and find the world failing, we can find also people in the world succeeding, loving, and believing.
The world was made to be good. And goodness continues in it, where we have allowed it to continue, where we have encouraged it.
If we would be responsible, then we must be responsible to that goodness. We must not allow our optimism and faith in Christ to be overwhelmed by the predicaments of the world. We must join His feet, beautiful upon the mountains, in publishing the peace and good tidings of love and eternal peace.
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August 29, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,767