Proverbs 12:25

                                        "Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but
                            a good word maketh it glad." Proverbs 12.25

Will Rogers use to say (paraphrastically) that he only had to read the newspaper in order to get all the material he needed for his act. I totally understand his reasoning, but I have the advantage of also having TV for inspiration. And it's the "news" that is going to be the basis for our lesson today. Let's give it a go.
One of the things that I think that all of us have noticed about the news that's reported to us is, that most of it falls into the "bad news" category. There was a study done a while back wherein a large group of people were asked to evaluate the news. This study was conducted over the period of a year and a half and they were asked to record whether what they were seeing or hearing was "good news" or "bad news." Whether it was "positive" or "negative. The results of that study was that 90% of the news was "negative." Was "bad news."
Is it any wonder that people go around with "heaviness of heart" all the time? That they are depressed or discouraged over the way things are going? It just seems like the "sky is always gloomy," so to speak. If ninety percent of what we see/hear in the news is negative, what would you think the general mental climate of society would be. I'd guess, uh - negative?
Based upon what I've already pointed out, don't you think it would be of great benefit if we made a concerted effort to be cheerful and positive every chance we get? For our benefit as much as for others. We get enough "bad news" every day from our news outlets that we don't need to add to it. The design by God for His people, Christians, is not to be "gloomy Gus's."
Right here I'm remembering another passage from Solomon's wise advice found in the book of Proverbs. In chapter 17, verse 22 he tells us, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." What two great metaphors are seen here in this verse - "medicine" and "dried bones."

"Medicine
" refers to the effect that cheerfulness has on our bodies. A lot of the ill feelings we have in our bodies is caused by our mental turmoil. When someone cheers us up it's like a dose of "medicine" to our spirits and makes us feel better physically. On the other hand, a "broken spirit," a mental state of turmoil, sadness or depression is like "dried bones." Like a condition that affects us to the very marrow of our bones.
Maybe we could use some "medicine" today. Some "good news" instead of the constant assault on our systems by the media and it's "bad news." Years ago my mother used to subscribe to a little weekly newspaper called "The Grit." It was a newspaper dedicated to only printing news articles that were of the "good" category. I don't even know if it still exists today, but I hope that it does because if there was ever a time that we needed a publication devoted to the "positive" it's now.
I'm going to close with a news article I ran across a while back that is just a great example of "good news." When you read it, maybe it will lift your spirit as it did mine. It's just a little news article about a whale and you may even recall seeing something about it when it happened back in December of 2005.
"If you read the front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her... a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time and nudged them, pushed gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The man who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same."
The article I read had this note appended to the above news article and I pass it on to you as it speaks directly to our thoughts today. It read: "May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will swim with you in the deep waters that may engulf you, and who will help you become untangled from the things that bind you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude. I pass this on in the same spirit.
                            People will forget what you said......
                            People will forget what you did........
                            But people will never forget how you made them feel....
Ron Covey

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