YOUR REACTION TO GOOD NEWS
Good news puts fat on the bones. Proverbs 15:30
What do you do when you get good news? It would be interesting to give good news to ten people and note their different reactions. Not all would dance and exclaim, even though they are happy. Each person processes joy differently.
I have spent many years of my life traveling with various people. Life on the road allows you to get to know someone really well. I know I was an anomaly to more than a few because of my seeming lack of response to things. For instance, when we drove down the highway and passed some beautiful scene, most in the group would point and exclaim. They couldn't stop talking amongst themselves about what they had seen. I, on the other hand, usually took it in privately. My appreciation was just as deep but just solitary. Often, someone in the group would say, "What is the matter with you? How can you refrain from gushing over that?" I usually answered, "I'm gushing on the inside!" And I was.
Solomon's words brought back my recollection of the differences in the people I have known well. I still believe that, whether an exclaimer or a reflector, something happens internally when we have cause to rejoice. There is an inner strengthening to our spirit. It is most always profound yet can be unnoticed by those close by. The one who wants to get off by himself to fully ponder something beautiful is not anti-social. And the one who exclaims is not shallow. Both have the capacity to react positively but each will initiate a different kind of ceremony. The first may throw a party. The latter will invite a friend to go for a walk so they can share deeply.
Isaiah said, "The Lord will satisfy your desire in scorched places and give strength to your bones." The fires of life leave us scorched at our very core. It is this very place that the good news of the Gospel touches. As I take in radical love, mercy, forgiveness, redemption and restoration, the scorched landscape begins to germinate something life-giving. The land begins to produce signs of a vineyard to come. We can look inward and begin to feast off a fattened landscape, the very place that was once barren and lifeless. Oh, how internally rich is the inside world of God’s child. How can it be otherwise! God’s Spirit lives there.
I have languished for You and I have been filled by You. In Jesus' name, Amen
For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org
Originally published Friday, 27 October 2023.
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